“They were killed by Russia.” The collage, set against a black background, featured photos of six children – purportedly Ukrainian – and went viral across X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
It struck a deep chord, hitting the nation’s most profound and devastating loss: the loss of its children, innocent victims of war.
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The image resonated widely, especially in the wake of news about nine recent deaths in Zaporizhzhia. But for my friend and me, something didn’t sit right. Why were there six children in the collage and not nine? Who decided which names would appear?
The answer was rather simple: these children never existed in the first place. The collage was a fabrication, generated by artificial intelligence and circulated by anonymous accounts hiding behind cryptic usernames.
Elsewhere, another AI creation surfaced – a starkly patriotic image shared on X. It depicted Ukrainian soldiers lying under snow in an open trench, resting on yellow and blue mats. The image, intended to evoke sympathy and galvanize donations for the Ukrainian army, left me more skeptical than inspired.
First, no soldier would expose such bright colors in open terrain, effectively advertising their position to enemy drones. Second, trenches in Ukraine are typically designed to protect soldiers from snow and prying eyes, not to display them like a tableau. And then there were the details: uncanny uniforms and non-existent “rifles.”
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Such images might reach an international audience, while Ukraine’s own digital ecosystem, particularly on Ukraine’s widely used Facebook, teems with similarly sentimental AI content. These posts often aim to stir sympathy for Ukrainian military members, but the narratives accompanying them are clumsy and infantilizing.
One account, for example, routinely posts AI-generated images of soldiers with captions claiming they’re celebrating birthdays alone, without cake or visitors. This account seems to have verified the birthdays of an entire brigade. Yet, the posts attract thousands of likes and shares – although it’s reasonable to suspect bot farms play a role in amplifying them.
Another trend involves AI-generated depictions of Ukrainian female servicemembers, particularly in challenging military roles, such as a pilot. The details are revealing: fabricated uniforms, aircraft cobbled together from disparate eras and nations, and names on uniforms that range from illegible to distinctly American – or even written in a cryptic, alien script.
The engagement is the same – they all ask to congratulate them on their birthdays since the Ukrainian warriors stayed alone on this important day. “No one congratulated me,” we read a compassionate caption to almost every photo. This encourages commenters to contribute with a kind word.
What’s troubling is how easily these fabrications could be weaponized for financial gain. Fraud is already a growing problem in Ukraine’s digital sphere. Recently, law enforcement detained two men who swindled nearly $59,000 through false donations for the Ukrainian armed forces, albeit without the help of AI. Imagine how much more effective – and difficult to detect – such fraud schemes could become with AI involvement.
The absurdities of AI-generated content can amuse as much as they alarm. There are dozens of twins and triplets, who for some reason are all 75 years old and have spent their entire lives in the Ukrainian army, even when the Ukrainian army was the part of the Soviet Union. And no one wishes them happy birthday either.
This overwhelming patriotism can lead to distrust, casting doubt on the events taking place in Ukraine. Do Ukrainian soldiers really dance in Tik Tok? Do the Ukrainian armed forces really lack funds? Are soldiers really so unprofessional that they use colored mats and sleep in open trenches?
Yet even the most implausible images can elicit admiration for the creativity behind them. Take, for instance, a baker sculpting a horse out of dough – captivating and delightful, if harmlessly so.
But not all is harmless. The captions accompanying these images often contain telltale signs of something more sinister. Russified Ukrainian words and incorrect grammatical cases suggest that some of these creations may not originate with well-meaning but misguided Ukrainians. Instead, they may bear the fingerprints of Russian operatives.
Recently, Vladimir Putin has declared the implementation of artificial intelligence a national priority, describing it as a “crucial tool for development.” Beyond raising fraudulent donations, this tools could foster entire online communities, disseminating false narratives and cultivating distrust.
AI is still in its infancy, yet it is already reshaping social media, infiltrating platforms like TikTok and Instagram with remarkable speed. Its potential for exploitation is vast and, for now, only dimly understood.
But one thing is certain: Ukraine has become a testing ground for these new technologies, just as it was for previous waves of Russian disinformation campaigns, from television to bot farms. Without a concerted effort to educate the public about the realities and risks of AI, Ukraine risks losing the battle for its people’s hearts and minds.
The views expressed are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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