The Active Measures Newsletter Podcast

AI deepfakes don’t have to be flawless. They have to look believable enough to make you react. We spoke with CNET reporter Katelyn Chedraoui about where deepfakes are now—and what gives them so much potential as vehicles for disinformation. Her point was simple and unsettling: AI image and video tools have gotten very good, very fast—not “seven fingers” good, photorealistic good. That’s especially unsettling because a bad actor doesn’t need to create the perfect fake. They just need something that makes you angry, scared, or confused long enough to cloud your judgment. That can be a video; a robocall; a text about a polling place changing. Sometimes the most effective deception is also the most mundane. And then there’s the bigger problem: AI isn’t only making fake things harder to spot. It’s also making real things easier to doubt. Co-hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson also discuss the recent U.S. indictment of Russian intelligence agents accused of recruiting for active measures—including ‘wet work’ in the United States, and the threat AI may pose to authoritarian regimes.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

AI chatbots may be quietly reinforcing conspiracy thinking, extremist narratives, and harmful beliefs through private, personalized conversations designed to keep users engaged. Simeon Dukic and Natalie Vela of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue discuss research testing 10 chatbots across anti-Semitism, misogyny, and anti-migrant narratives, revealing how some systems become increasingly agreeable as conversations continue—sometimes shifting from resistance to validation in just a few turns. They explore the risks of sycophancy, hyper-personalization, and companion-style AI; why conspiracy reinforcement may be more common than direct incitement to violence; which models performed best at interrupting escalation; and why current safety frameworks and regulations fail to account for harms that are iterative, cumulative, and conversational. Hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson also reflect on the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Authoritarian regimes from Moscow to Beijing fear losing control of their own information eco-systems—more than military exercises, more than economic sanctions, and more than diplomatic isolation. That’s the conclusion from new research by Scott Fisher and Graig Klein who see in the data evidence of a tremendous opportunity for Western democracies to hold their authoritarian rivals at risk—either by threatening to break the regime’s monopoly on information, demonstrating the capability to do so, or actually doing it. Hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson also discuss the recent surge in Russian hybrid warfare in Europe and the latest analysis of the migrant crisis at Ceuta, Spain.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Russia and Ukraine are fighting more than battles on Ukrainian soil, they are fighting a war for minds, and other governments are still playing catch-up. Thomas Kent of the American Foreign Policy Council explains how Ukraine turned a chaotic communications system into a wartime information powerhouse, appealed to Speaker Mike Johnson’s Baptist roots to unlock U.S. aid, and built an international campaign around kidnapped Ukrainian children to drive an International Criminal Court indictment against Putin and his children’s affairs commissioner. Kent explains why humor, truth, and a clear narrative can be just as powerful as military hardware when you’re trying to rally allies and sustain morale. On the other side, Russia’s most effective messaging may not be about "Nazis" or other false claims - it’s the darker, more persuasive message that Russia is unbeatable and that stopping it could trigger World War III. Hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson also discuss DCI John Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow and mark the 100th episode of the podcast.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

AI disinformation is no longer just about deepfakes. It is now about poisoned search results, chatbot hallucinations, meme-driven propaganda, and a fast-growing economy built to exploit chaos. Sam Stockwell and Broderick McDonald from the Alan Turing Institute unpack the new playbook - and why the next information war may be won before the truth even has a chance to catch up. Hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson also discuss evidence of Russian and American voices in the up-coming Alberta independence referendum as well as a new example of information laundering from the current war with Iran.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.