AI generated “news” about kamikaze drones that provoked an international scandal
Recently, a number of Ukrainian media outlets spread a “news” story about Serbia’s purchase of 20,000 missile launchers. Shahed-136 kamikaze drones. It was reported that the agreement was signed during the visit of the Serbian delegation to Iran, headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Goran Aleksic.
The source of this “news” was the Etto.ba website, but in fact the original source of the information is Thegeopost. However, he refers to a post by the Terror Alarm community on X (Twitter).
🚨🇷🇸🇮🇷 #Serbian Foreign Ministry delegation in Tehran to order 20,000 Shahed-136 drones with Tehran saying “No barriers to improving ties”.
✝️☦️Iran has been arming Orthodox Christian fundamentalists in Russia, Armenia and Serbia against the Catholic World for the past 2 years. pic.twitter.com/0V99f5DJos– Terror Alarm (@Terror_Alarm) August 9, 2023
However, the description of the community itself says that its materials are generated by artificial intelligence:
“Non-governmental media free of agenda. The world’s first news and reviews created by artificial intelligence.”
And it is in this piece, created with the help of AI, that Serbia’s purchase of 20 thousand Shahed-136 drones in Iran:
“The Serbian Foreign Ministry delegation in Tehran orders 20,000 Shahed-136 drones, and Tehran says: “There are no obstacles to improving relations.”
Over the past 2 years, Iran has been arming Orthodox fundamentalists in Russia, Armenia and Serbia against the Catholic world.”
It should be noted that when answering user requests, AI sometimes comes up with some nuances of its own. In this case, on August 7, Deputy Foreign Minister of Serbia Goran Aleksic and Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran Ali Bagheri Qani met in Tehran. According to the available information, the meeting discussed trade and economic aspects of cooperation, and after the meeting, a standard message was published that “Serbia is in favor of developing relations with Iran in various fields.” However, there is no information on Serbia’s purchase of any Iranian weapons. Although usually the Iranian authorities are quite open about their intention to sell their weapons.
So, we have what may be the first case of artificially intelligent content being disseminated by the media and causing an international arms scandal.
