What happened

Researchers discovered a network of at least 30 YouTube channels, dubbed "Shadow Play," that produced over 4,500 videos promoting pro-China and anti-US narratives. 

The campaign used AI-generated news anchors, voiceovers and avatars to create a huge volume of content covering various topics, including claims of China winning the US-China tech war, criticisms of US companies, and predictions of US economic collapse. 

The news anchors were found to have been created using Synthesia's commercially available AI avatars, specifically "Anna" and "Jason."

The videos garnered nearly 120 million views and 730,000 subscribers, making it one of the most apparently successful China-related influence operations on social media.

Why it happened

The campaign likely aims to shift English-speaking audiences' views on China's and the US' roles in international politics, global economy and strategic technology competition. 

While not definitively attributed to a specific actor, researchers believe it may be operated by a Mandarin-speaking entity, possibly a commercial organisation working under some degree of direction or encouragement by the Chinese government.

Synthesia's technology is primarily designed for human resources and training videos, but its accessibility and low cost (as little as USD 30 per month) makes it attractive for bad actors seeking to create deceptive content at scale.