REGISTER: Bette's Speakeasy Series - Monique Camarra on AI
Bette members—please register for our Speakeasy with Monique Camarra as we educate our community about AI, in part of a new and ongoing series, Sunday, Feb. 22, 11 am Pacific
***Bette members will find the registration links below the paywall. To join our community events and to help support independent investigative journalism in a time of grave peril, please upgrade to a paid membership.***
AI Series
On Sunday, February 22, geopolitical analyst Monique Camarra joins us to show how Russia is flooding the news-sphere with fakes, no longer to simply fool and confuse people but to train AI with false information.
Recent reports from the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab reveal Russia’s Pravda network is publishing mass-produced articles as training data for AI, which then launders Russian propaganda. Geopolitical analyst Monique Camarra will put this into context for us, combined with her own additional research. Currently, she’s examining the FSB’s capacities to shut down the internet in Russia after Mar 1 (by law) for any reason they see fit without informing the public.
“What I am hypothesizing is that the Pravda manufacturing of news ex novo could replace all news in a contained information space after March 1,” Cammara told Bette Dangerous. “With no civic society capabilities to publish news independently, the Kremlin would have total control over the net in Russia. Once the kinks have been worked out, the same system could be exported to the US. Trump is already taking all the steps necessary to shut down legacy media, intimidate journalists through lawfare and other measures. I don’t think it could be completely done in the US because it’s a society that already knows what civic engagement is, and what democracy is.”
She is also going to discuss the following:
“I’m researching a case now on AI generated videos on YouTube. I found out about them through my 87-year-old father, who is receiving only these videos now because of the algorithm. He called me urgently one day last week because he wanted to tell me personally that Trump was arrested in the White House at 4 am that morning and that JD Vance was sworn in as president. I listened and took notes and I made him show me the video he was watching. Then I spent the whole evening and found over 100 AI-generated YT vids in the same network. There are multiple intents to the operation: first, the AI-actor is learning and honing what language works and what doesn’t, refines the narratives and can categorize them for cognitive impact on the specific user-profile; secondly, sows confusion in the information sphere on a mass level because users no longer know what is true or a fake. I can pick them out but people with limited eye-sight and fewer observation skills can’t.”
This point is very interesting, because I recall in my 2016 research that Russian fake news in the 2016 election was spread primarily by older adults on Facebook, so this seems to be the next level of interference.
Monique also noted that attribution is difficult unless you have access to analytical tools.
“Mainstream users are not reading the reports put out by DFRLab or other think tanks and analysts who are investigating these accounts,” she said. “I believe they are honing the information space for cognitive operations for future operations (non-kinetic, kinetic or hybrid). The whole raison d’etre for these kinds of cognitive ops is to get people to mobilise from stage 1-2 (observation and acceptance) to stages 3-5, or rather mobilisation in the real world: jumping from online to the physical world. That’s the name of the game.”
Her concern is all our concern that the “effect that AI-generated disinformation will have on users is that they don’t know what is real or not, which leads to the erosion of trust.”
“The information sphere is where normal people have agency, real agency. They choose what to see, what to listen to. Today it’s where you find your support group, like-minded friends and online acquaintances,” she said.
So please join us for this very important start to our new AI series.
Our Speakeasy series and our Happy Hours are open to all levels of membership. If you are not yet a member, please consider joining.
Our Founder’s Day Series with Jim Stewartson
As part of our AI Series, Emmy-award winning game developer Jim Stewartson, my podcast co-host, will be offering Bette members who support me at the Founding level a multi-part series on all things AI, what’s real, what’s hype, and what you need to know. This series begins on Tuesday, March 3 and continues on March 10. To upgrade your membership to Founding Level, you can do so here:
Here is a calendar of all the upcoming events:
Open to all levels of paid membership — registration links below:
Tuesday Happy Hour, February 24, 11 am Pacific — we continue our conversation with Vesna Pusić on the trials of Yugoslavian war criminals
Sunday Speakeasy, February 22, 11 am Pacific — Monique Camarra on AI abuses
Open to Founding members and high-level supporters:
Tuesday Founder’s Day, March 3 & March 10, 11 am Pacific — Jim Stewartson AI Series (registration links coming separately)
Keep scrolling to register for tomorrow’s event, and if you are not yet a member, please use the coupon below to join:
Look forward to seeing many of you on Sunday with Mo’ and Tuesday with Vesna Pusić!
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