Already have been for a while. Brexit, Trump, AfD, all have been pushed by botnets.

The article talks specifically about AI, you’re confusing AI with bots, during Brexit there wasn’t AI for example…

> No more “copy-paste bots”: AI personas can convincingly imitate real users on social media

Sure, yes, but I'd still agree with saubeidl that the danger of inauthentic accounts was already demonstrated pre-AI with both copypasta and https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1019:_First_Post

AI does, as you say, make this much worse.