- Russia reportedly thinks a bogus AI-generated Tom Cruise can help trash the Paris Olympics.
- Microsoft alleges that Russia has been orchestrating a disinformation scheme targeting the 2024 Olympics.
Russia wants you to hate the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics — and it's enlisted the help of a fake, AI-generated Tom Cruise, Microsoft alleged.
In the report published on Sunday, Microsoft's threat analysis center accused Russia of orchestrating a disinformation scheme intended to disparage the reputation of the International Olympic Committee and to make people believe that violence will break out at the games.
And a fake Cruise plays a bizarre role in that campaign.
Microsoft alleges that a Russian misinformation group known as Storm-1679 created a phony documentary called "Olympics Has Fallen," which features an AI-generated voice-over of Cruise insulting and disparaging the IOC leadership.
Microsoft called the script "strange" and "meandering."
The film's title and poster — which Storm-1679 first released on Telegram in June 2023 and then distributed across the internet — mimic an actual political action thriller called "Olympus Has Fallen" from 2013, according to Microsoft.
And it's not just a poster; Storm-1679 actually created the entire fake film, which is broken into four 9-minute episodes, each featuring a Netflix logo, Gizmodo reported.
"In this series you will discover the inner workings of the global sports industry," the AI Tom Cruise says in one of the videos, according to Gizmodo. "In particular, I will shed some light on the venal executives of the International Olympic Committee, IOC, who are slowly and painfully destroying the Olympic sports that have existed for thousands of years."
Storm-1679 also manufactured bogus five-star reviews of the film from outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the BBC, Microsoft alleges.
"The use of slick computer-generated special effects and a broad marketing campaign, including faked endorsements from Western media outlets and celebrities, indicates a significant increase in skill and effort compared to most Influence Operations (IO) campaigns," Clint Watts, the general manager of Microsoft's threat analysis center, wrote in a blog post.
Representatives for Cruise did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
And Russia's alleged scheme isn't just limited to a phony Tom Cruise. Microsoft alleges that Storm-1679, along with another group called Storm-1099, also created fake news articles and deceptive videos purporting to be from reputable outlets like Le Parisien and France24. The videos and articles make false claims that rampant violence and terrorist attacks are expected at the Paris games, which begin in July.
Microsoft explained that while Russia has a long history of maligning the Olympics, its tactics have gotten more sophisticated, particularly with the help of AI.
The Russian embassy in France rejected the allegations, according to CNN, writing: "The Embassy urges the French authorities to put an end to this unfounded and unjustified anti-Russian disinformation campaign."
In April, French President Emmanuel Macron accused Russia of targeting the Paris Olympics, prompting a Kremlin spokesman to respond, calling his allegations "completely unfounded," The Washington Post reported.
The Kremlin has reason to be grumpy with global sports leadership. Russia was banned from the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics over a doping scandal.
Then, late last year, the IOC banned Russia from the upcoming Olympics for recognizing sports councils in the regions it occupies in eastern Ukraine as part of its ongoing war.