US lawmakers say intelligence briefing showed Russia targeting Democrats with AI-driven misinformation

The top Democratic lawmakers on the congressional intelligence committees said on Wednesday that a classified election-security briefing showed Russia waging an online misinformation campaign against Democrats contesting next month’s midterm elections, Reuters reported.

Senator Mark Warner and Representative Jim Himes told reporters they had requested the briefing from the Director of National Intelligence, Jay Clayton, and that Russia was running the same kind of campaign US intelligence tracked in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 elections.

“Russia, similar to prior occasions, is going after Democrats,” Warner said, citing news reports that Democrat James Talarico, a candidate for the US Senate in Texas, and Senator Jon Ossoff, seeking re-election in Georgia, “in particular are being dinged” by fake advertisements created with AI.

Himes said Moscow’s conduct was “the same old, same old”: “The Russians are kind of throwing everything out there. Chaos, you know, don’t trust your voting machines.” He stressed there was no evidence any country could penetrate US election systems and change results.

A classified report described by Politico says the operation uses AI-generated content to target Ukraine-supporting candidates of both parties and to fuel distrust of institutions and voting machines, while also covering Chinese and Iranian activity. X said last week it blocked 13,000 accounts linked to Russian, Chinese and Iranian influence operations. The White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Russian embassy did not respond to requests for comment.