Fake faces, real political slop: AI profile pictures flood X with suspicious accounts
Ourtake
The bots had AI faces and a suspiciously consistent obsession with crypto and politics.
What happened
Researchers from Ruhr University Bochum, GESIS and CISPA analyzed nearly 15 million X accounts and identified 7,723 using AI-generated portrait photos, about 0.052 percent of profiles. Those accounts often posted about politics, COVID-19, Ukraine and cryptocurrency, and many were created in bulk in 2023. After nine months, X had suspended more than half of them.