A new paper, published in Science on [January 22, 2026] predicts an imminent step-change in how disinformation campaigns will be conducted. Instead of hundreds of employees sitting at desks in St. Petersburg, the paper posits, one person with access to the latest AI tools will be able to command “swarms” of thousands of social media accounts, capable not only of crafting unique posts indistinguishable from human content, but of evolving independently and in real time—all without constant human oversight.
These AI swarms, the researchers believe, could deliver society-wide shifts in viewpoint that not only sway elections but ultimately bring about the end of democracy ….
“Advances in artificial intelligence offer the prospect of manipulating beliefs and behaviors on a population-wide level,” the report says. “By adaptively mimicking human social dynamics, they threaten democracy.”
For experts who have spent years tracking and combating disinformation campaigns, the paper presents a terrifying future.
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“[T]housands of AI chatbots … working together to give the guise of grassroots support where there was none? That’s the future this paper imagines—Russian troll farms on steroids,” says Nina Jankowicz, the former Biden administration disinformation czar ….
