AP: AI-made videos likely tied to Russia use real people's names to target Talarico and Brown

As of 8:41 a.m. ET, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026

Social media videos believed to have been made with artificial intelligence and likely linked to Russia are misusing real people's names and photographs to spread false claims about two Democratic Senate candidates in the last week of the midterm campaign, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.

The targets are Sherrod Brown, who is running against Republican Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio, and James Talarico, who is running against Republican Ken Paxton for a Senate seat in Texas, according to AP. Election Day is Nov. 3.

What the videos show

The video aimed at Brown appears to include some AI manipulation, depicts a newscast and uses pictures of former staff members, including Haya Akbik, who interned for Brown several years ago, AP reported. Akbik told AP that any claims attributed to her in the clip are "completely made up."

"It's my name, it's my reputation, making this allegation, and it's just completely false," she said, according to AP.

NewsGuard, which tracks online misinformation, reported that the Brown video dubbed fake audio over a real Oct. 21 segment from Cleveland 19, the city's CBS affiliate, to falsely report sexual-assault allegations against Brown. Cleveland 19's news director told NewsGuard, "We have reported no such thing."

The Talarico video, which AP said is also believed to include some AI manipulation, is framed as a direct-to-camera confession from a former student of Talarico. NewsGuard described it as one of two AI deepfakes posted last week that falsely claimed a former student accused Talarico of sexual assault.

The Russia link

The new videos resemble clips from a Russian network known as Storm-1516 that targeted Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in 2024, and they are likely products of the same network, Clemson University professor Darren Linvill told AP. He found that accounts sharing the new material had also shared earlier Storm-1516 content. NewsGuard separately said the Brown video appears to be Storm-1516's work, based on its format and how it spread.

Hany Farid, a Dartmouth College professor who studies deepfakes, told AP that both videos were likely generated or manipulated with AI. He called the Brown video a "fairly low-tech fake" and said the Talarico video "is consistent with previous disinformation campaigns released close to Election Day."

The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to AP's request for comment and has denied interfering in U.S. elections in the past, AP reported. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency also did not respond to AP.

Platform and campaign responses

X took down the initial posts and suspended the accounts for violating its rules, but copies, some with hundreds of shares, could still be found online Tuesday, AP reported.

"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 to AP.

AP's report did not include a response from Brown's campaign. NewsGuard said the campaign did not immediately respond to its request for comment. GROKsiNEWS.com found no public statement from the Brown campaign on the video as of publication.

Akbik told AP the episode shows the importance of Congress regulating "AI slop on the internet."