More and more people are using AI-driven chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Le Chat or Copilot instead of search engines to find information online. The advantage in this is that these large-language models (LLMs) not only provide links to the information they reproduce but also summarize content in a concise way that lets users access more information faster.

However, this approach is also prone to errors. After all, it is not uncommon for chatbots to make mistakes . This phenomenon, known as hallucination, has been known for a long time.

In other cases, AI chatbots combine information in such a way that they produce an incorrect result. Experts call this confabulation.

Chatbots also fall for false news on current events, although this is less well-known, according to the US company NewsGuard, which has set itself the task of checking the credibility and transparency of websites and web services.

Portal Kombat, a Russian propaganda network that has attracted attention with numerous disinformation campaigns, might be one of the current key players of online disinformation. The network supports the Russian army's fight in Ukraine via internet portals that spread pro-Russian propaganda.

Portal Kombat was investigated by VIGINUM, an investigation unit of the French government set up to counter manipulated information from abroad. The monitoring center found at least 193 different websites that they attributed to this network between September and December 2023.

The network's central vector........

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