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ENTER THE MATRIX Inside China's chilling network of AI generated PEOPLE --

• https://www.the-sun.com by Henry Holloway

CHINA has a sprawling creepy network of AI generated people who it uses to spread anti-vaxx lies and fake news about Covid.

Beijing is believed to use a massive "spamouflage" network to muddy the waters and promote its own interests to unwitting social media users - and its computer generated "people" are perhaps its most disturbing tactic.

Twitter and Facebook profiles are being fronted by pictures of people who simply do not exist - but have constructed by AI software.

These "people" have never been born - they are simply bundles of code with the illusion of personality, with varying ages, genders, facial shapes and ethnicities.

The photos are almost indistinguishable from real people and are photo realistic with the imperfections that bring faces to life - far beyond what would see in video games like The Sims.

Seeing one crossing your feed on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram you would never think twice that they may be "fake".

And while the cutting edge tech of AI-generated faces has many harmless applications, numerous experts have said China uses a vast network of these people in a wing of its online propaganda campaign.

The AI "people" can help Chinese trolls beat standard checks on fake accounts, such as being able to trace stolen profile pictures using reverse image search.

Fake accounts are also believed to be used to bolster Chinese state media on Facebook - with the state also deploying so-called "warrior trolls" to fight a pro-China PR battle in online spaces in the West.