Social media videos believed to be produced with artificial intelligence and linked to Russia are misusing real people’s names and photographs to spread disinformation about two Democratic Senate candidates in the final stretch of midterm voting . One of the targets is Sherrod Brown, who is running against Republican Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio. The video, which appears to include some AI manipulation , depicts a newscast and includes pictures of Haya Akbik, who interned for Brown several years ago, and other former staff members. ” “It’s my name, it’s my reputation, making this allegation, and it’s just completely false,” she said. “And it harms the senator, someone else, in the process. ” The videos demonstrate how foreign adversaries continue to use a familiar playbook to try to influence American voters who are deciding which party controls Congress next year. The threat could be magnified with AI, a powerful tool for fabricating damaging information that can sometimes appear very real. Another target is James Talarico , who is running against Republican Ken Paxton for a Senate seat in Texas. The video, also believed to include some AI manipulation, is framed as a direct-to-camera confessional from a former student of Talarico. “The most powerful people in the world know they can’t beat James Talarico with the truth, so they’re slandering him with AI deepfakes, foreign bots, and conspiracy theories to protect their broken, corrupt political system,” Talarico spokesperson JT Ennis said in a statement. The social media company X has taken down the initial posts that shared the videos and suspended the users for violating the platform’s rules.