Dobroserdov: Russia uses artificial intelligence to mislead families of missing persons

This was reported by Artur Dobroserdov, Commissioner for Persons Missing Under Special Circumstances (Ministry of Internal Affairs), in an interview with Ukrinform.

According to him, one method involves altering photographs of prisoners. The Russians take an image of one person and use artificial intelligence to replace the face, passing it off as someone else who is missing.

“For example, they took a photo showing a prisoner sitting at a table and simply changed his face to that of one, two, three, or four other people. Then, through Telegram channels, they found those who were searching for the missing persons, sent them these photos, and started communicating,” Dobroserdov said.

Another method, according to him, is to create or edit images of Ukrainian soldiers allegedly in captivity. To do this, the Russians use photos that the families themselves previously published in the public domain, alter them using software, and distribute them with fake messages.

“They slightly altered the photos posted by the families and added certain filters. Then they started writing: [this or that person] is planned ‘for official confirmation’ on such and such a date, for exchange on such and such a date... get in touch and they will tell you how to help,” the commissioner said.

Dobroserdov stressed that the more information about a missing person that families publish in open sources, the more opportunities for manipulation are available to those who try to use this data.

As reported by Ukrinform, Dobroserdov previously called on the families of missing persons to be cautious when sharing personal data in the public domain, as this information could be exploited by fraudsters or Russian special services.