Paul Bouchaud

@paulbouchaud.com

(they/them) Researcher in Algorithmic Auditing, Social Simulation & Evidenced-Based Policymaking | paulbouchaud.com | working with aiforensics.org

I had a great conversation with Paul Bouchaud at @aiforensics.org about their research tracking the proliferation of Grok-generated deepfakes across the internet, which disproportionately impacted women. Check it out in the most recent of AWO's newsletter here!

@awo.agency · 5mo ago

AWO’s Algorithm Governance Roundup is out. This month we spoke with Dr Paul Bouchaud at @aiforensics.org about their audit of Grok which charted the rapid rise of sexualised deepfakes generated on X and Grok Imagine.👇 eomail5.com/web-version?...

Meta's new computer vision model was trained on three times more military equipment than sports and medical combined, but don't worry—their license says you can't use it for military purposes.

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Europe is rapidly rolling out age-verification — in the name of “child safety.” 🚷 But is it actually working? Our first audit found AgeGO’s selfie feature streamed biometric data straight to Amazon. 🪪 Our new report examines AgeVerif: What we found raises serious concerns. 👇

Last week, 5 major porn sites rolled out “age verification” in France to comply with regulators. 3 of them — xvideos, xnxx, tnaflix — use AgeGO. AgeGO: • Collects the exact video URL before consent • Sends webcam streams directly to Amazon • Forces users to give an email via an unskippable step

Diagram of AgeGO's age verification system.

En 2024 et 2025, une agence pro-Orbán a mené une campagne numérique occulte en faveur du Rassemblement national. Des dizaines de contenus ont été diffusés sur X sur la base d’un ciblage politique (ce qui est interdit), selon des données de l’ONG @aiforensics.org partagées avec @mediapart.fr. 👇

Une agence pro-Orbán a mené une campagne numérique occulte pour le RN en France

Des contenus ont été diffusés sur le réseau social X en ciblant les internautes sur la base de critères politiques, ce qui est interdit par les réglementations françaises et européennes.

mediapart.fr

New paper hot off the press www.nature.com/articles/s41... We analysed over 40,000 computer vision papers from CVPR (the longest standing CV conf) & associated patents tracing pathways from research to application. We found that 90% of papers & 86% of downstream patents power surveillance 1/

Computer-vision research powers surveillance technology - Nature

An analysis of research papers and citing patents indicates the extensive ties between computer-vision research and surveillance.

nature.com

@paulbouchaud.com uncovered some bizarre targeting options on #X that let advertisers do pretty much whatever they want. Want to exclude #LGBT users or target only #Christians? Apparently, it’s possible and done. Have you been targeted like this? 👉 aiforensics.org/work/sensiti...

Have I been Targeted?

Have I Been Targeted? is a tool built by AI Forensics that lets you see whether you have been targeted based on your sensitive characteristics on X

haveibeentargeted.online

J’ai déposé une plainte contre Facebook auprès de l’Arcom hier, pour manquement à ses obligations liées au Digital Services Act (DSA). La raison : une modération aux abonnés absents, impliquant un potentiel risque systémique.

"“The alleged underenforcement of Meta’s monitoring policies cannot give rise to liability,” the co wrote last year in a motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging negligence in removing crypto scams, adding it “does not owe a duty to users” to address fraud on its platforms. www.wsj.com/tech/meta-fr...

Meta Battles an ‘Epidemic of Scams’ as Criminals Flood Instagram and Facebook

Fake puppies and phony offers of mouthwatering bargains are often seeded by overseas crime networks; employees say company is reluctant to impede its advertising juggernaut

wsj.com

NEW: A secretive surveillance company is building "AI persona" bots for cops intended to gather evidence on people. Personas include "college protesters," "radicalized" divorced moms, children. We have docs that shows how it works and what cops can do with it: www.404media.co/this-college...

This ‘College Protester’ Isn’t Real. It’s an AI-Powered Undercover Bot for Cops

Massive Blue is helping cops deploy AI-powered social media bots to talk to people they suspect are anything from violent sex criminals all the way to vaguely defined “protesters.”

404media.co

"This is a highly adversarial space, we are investing a lot in our detection systems..." Meanwhile, our latest report at @aiforensics.org found Meta reviewed, approved, and displayed fake medicine advertisements over 292 million times to EU users since the DSA took effect.

Meta's Failing Ad Moderation: Health Scams Targeting EU Users

Ah si. L’info du jour c’est ça : les travaux de Paul Bouchaud montrent que Meta ne modère pas les publicités politiques (d’où les nombreuses pub de Doppelganger qui sont restées sur Facebook pendant des mois). Mais par contre ça, ils ont modéré… Ccl : le modèle économique de Meta c’est caca.

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By cross-referencing thousands of Doppelgänger advertisements and leaked assets, we document with @checkfirst.network and Reset.Tech the sustained access of the "Social Design Agency" to Meta's advertising ecosystem, despite being under US and EU sanctions. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/b...

Russian Disinformation Campaigns Eluded Meta’s Efforts to Block Them

A new report details how a covert influence operation linked to the Kremlin continued to place ads on Facebook despite U.S. and E.U. prohibitions on doing business with the organization.

nytimes.com

Despite international sanctions, #Meta is accepting payments from Russian propagandists. Our latest report with @aiforensics.org & Reset underscore how Meta has failed to moderate over 8,000 political ads from the Kremlin-linked Social Design Agency (SDA). #SDALeak

Influence by Design: How Meta Accepted Russian Propaganda Payments Despite Sanctions - CheckFirst

Check First, in partnership with Reset.tech and AI Forensics, unveils the extent to which Kremlin-linked entity SDA have exploited Meta platforms to disseminate propaganda.

checkfirst.network