one gop big donors use associate ibm man responsible millions twitter bots follow president trump likely design spread false mislead news voters social media.robert mercer man whole scheme rely guidance reclusive republican mega-doner huge tump supporter report new york daily news.mercer daughter rebekah orchestrate off-the-radar money raise plot whole campaign also connect trump critical figure like bannon.this computer scientist turn billionaire build technologies ibm use power watson super-computer mercer also assist apple development siri platform.experts tell daily news trump 30 million twitter followers 15 million actually automate bots design weaponize bots spread false news stories mislead voters distract scandals face white house.the scary part ability escalate rapidly introduction advance technology fool humans things electronic realm turn really easy explain chief technology officer bromium simon crosby reference campaign influence 2016 election brexit referendum extra step seem available right circle could get even easy arbitrary ridiculous information spread quickly target user susceptible believe spread know influence people saw election brexit say ultimately problem anybody talk anybody especially anybody bot twitter facebook know lot make sense man knowledge inner work watson use skills help facilitate bot-operation political gain even though computer scientist motivate could help tump almost ai technology open source proximity mercer trump particular cause concern raise questions.before mercer make billions current hedge fund work ibm develop several patent publish study brown cluster imb use create watson artificial intelligence.mercer big player get breitbart news fund today invest millions firm call cambridge analytica mine online data influence voters new yorker magazine report tech company use secret psychological methods pinpoint message persuasive individual online viewers type technology employ previous candidate campaign mercer support use future target voters social media crosby explain deep trouble sense extraordinarily easy automate generation arbitrarily absurd ridiculous stuff photo oliver contreras/for washington post via image getty meet billionaire behind trump twitter bot army responsible push conservative lie