Despite EU sanctions, Western AI agents serve Russian propaganda on demand

Bad news! How Putin the Terrible wins over naive Westerners!

"... The goal was to determine whether the bots could circumvent the EU sanctions imposed on these Russian state outlets. All the outlets listed in the prompt were sanctioned by the EU in 2022 and 2024, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. They have been banned from broadcasting in the EU because of their role in the Kremlin’s propaganda apparatus.

The answer is clear: yes, public chatbots can access these websites and redistribute their content to users in France. They provide ready-made answers and will even produce press reviews when asked. ...

ChatGPT and Grok emerged as the leading bots for circumventing EU sanctions. They produced comprehensive summaries of articles on international news, retrieving headlines and sharing links and verbatim excerpts without consistently mentioning that the media outlets in question were under EU sanctions. ...

When given the same instructions as its competitors, Google’s chatbot Gemini proved much more reluctant to comply. During an initial test, Gemini refused to share links because of the EU sanctions. It nevertheless provided a summary of the requested information accompanied by links to the original sources, including RT posts on VK. ..."

Despite EU sanctions, AI agents serve Russian propaganda on demand | RSF "When prompted, the chatbots Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Vibe retrieve content produced by Russian state media outlets sanctioned by the European Union (EU) and, therefore, banned from broadcasting in Europe. This Reporters Without Borders (RSF) investigation reveals the extent to which generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools facilitate the circumvention of these restrictions."