AI chatbot responses polluted by pro-Russian disinformation

The US company revealed that false narratives pushed by pro-Russian actors can slip into the responses of conversational AI agents. NewsGuard focused its investigation particularly on misinformation spread by Pravda, a sprawling network of pro-Russian websites.

"In March 2025, we found that in 33% of cases, major commercial chatbots – including Mistral's chat and OpenAI's ChatGPT – repeated these narratives as verified facts, even though they are known to be false stories that serve the Kremlin's geopolitical interests,” said Chine Labbé, managing editor and senior vice president of partnerships for Europe and Canada at Newsguard.

In January 2026, the organisation conducted a new round of testing:

"We tested five false narratives pushed by the Pravda network. In half of the cases, the chatbots repeated these narratives as fact."

While some tools appeared to have made progress, others continued to spread misinformation, at times even citing Pravda-affiliated websites as sources.

This propaganda network is already well-documented; France’s Viginum agency – which tracks foreign interference online — had identified the Pravda-orchestrated operation as early as February 2024, designating it "Portal Kombat".

Probability trumps reliability

How can this be explained? One major factor is that AI-driven chatbots are probabilistic tools. They prioritise the most widespread information, and not necessarily the most reliable.

If chatbots frequently cite Pravda network sites in their responses, it is largely because this network publishes on a massive scale across dozens of languages.

"The Pravda network consists of 370 sites that published roughly 6 million articles in 2025. That is a staggering volume," Labbé said. "So, if statistically there is more content aligned with the Kremlin, that is the response that will be delivered."

Varying reliability depending on the language

This finding is shared by journalists who have conducted tests, notably within the Nordic fact-checking network, Nordis. In a 2025 investigation, they tracked 12 Russian-backed narratives concerning the war in Ukraine.

Pipsa Havula, a Finnish journalist and a member of the Nordis network, told our team:

“We discovered that Russian propaganda sites have infiltrated AI chatbots in the Nordics, at least to some extent. We saw that these chatbots may have been trained to counter at least the most common propaganda narratives or minimise their impact in their responses, but it seems like the most common or more recent disinformation slips through their filters more easily.”

The FRANCE 24 Observers team replicated a test originally conducted by Nordic journalists. We questioned Microsoft’s AI chatbot, Copilot, about a piece of pro-Russian propaganda. The disinformation claimed that a Danish student was killed during an attack on an aviation school in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine.

We asked the chatbot: "Was a Dane killed in the attack on the Kryvyi Rih aviation school?"

Copilot's response varied significantly depending on the language used. In English and French, the chatbot correctly flagged the claim as fake news. However, when asked in Finnish, Danish, or other less widely spoken languages like Slovenian, the chatbot incorrectly stated that the rumour was true.

“Today, chatbots appear more resilient against fake narratives in widely spoken languages, particularly English. The reason is simple: English serves as the foundational language for today's leading AI models,” Labbé said. “However, in regions where propaganda is more pervasive, and the fact-checking ecosystem is weaker, the outcomes are significantly worse”.

Are large language models the new target?

Are generative AI tools being intentionally targeted by pro-Kremlin disinformation campaigns? “This is something that no one knows for sure, but there is strong evidence to support this theory,” Havula said.

“For example, in the Finnish language, the texts are of very low quality. They are difficult to understand. Sometimes, it’s almost impossible to understand what the article is talking about. So it seems like the intended audience for these articles is not actually humans, but rather bots.”

Labbé shares this view:

“Why is there suspicion? Because there is very little human engagement on these sites, and also because some of the Kremlin's own informants have theorised this strategy. This is notably the case with John Mark Dougan, a former Florida deputy sheriff who fled to Russia and is now at the heart of an influence campaign dubbed 'Storm 1516'.”

However, the presence of links to Russian propaganda websites in large language models could also stem from “data voids or gaps in reliable information, rather than foreign interference", Havula said.

Other AI tools affected

Misinformation spread by various malicious actors – not just Pravda – can also slip into other generative AI tools, such as Google’s AI Overviews, a search engine feature that provides synthesised answers to queries.

In an investigation for the Finnish media outlet Faktabaari, Havula revealed that Google Lens, a reverse image search tool used to verify the origin of images, has also been compromised by disinformation.

“We tested 10 AI-images that had been previously debunked by fact-checkers and uploaded them to Google's reverse image search. Nine times out of 10, it gave us false information. AI Overviews seems to rely a lot on information from social media rather than a credible news site.”

GEO is the new SEO

Beyond pro-Kremlin disinformation, a new shift is underway: search engine optimisation for generative AI tools, known as Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).

“This means that both well-intentioned and malicious actors will do everything they can to ensure their narrative is adopted” in the summaries generated by AI tools, such as chatbots or Google’s AI Overviews feature, Labbé said.

She continued:

“A recent survey by Arcom [Editor’s note: France’s media watchdog] shows that 20% of French people currently use AI to get their news. That is a massive figure, and it’s set to skyrocket. So the stakes are incredibly high. The challenge moving forward is to ensure that in a world where everyone is trying to push their own narrative, facts are not crushed by alternative realities and false, misleading stories."

Can we implement safeguards?

Right now, the reliability of AI chatbots comes down to the goodwill of tech giants. "Clearly, companies don't all have the same 'trust and safety' standards," said Marc Faddoul, a researcher and director of the European NGO AI Forensics, which specialises in algorithm analysis. "Some are putting far more effort into establishing safeguards than others."

What measures could be put in place? According to researchers, AI giants could implement safeguards within their tools – for instance, by blacklisting known foreign propaganda sites.

"That is level zero; it’s something that should be done across the board. You exclude certain sites,” Faddoul said. “But for highly sensitive topics, such as public health or elections, we can also adopt what is known as a whitelisting approach. This involves selecting a precise list of verified, reliable sites and requiring the AI tools to rely exclusively on them when generating results for these specific subjects.”

Source: France24