China will use AI to disrupt elections in the US, South Korea and India - Microsoft

This year, China will try to disrupt elections in the United States, South Korea, and India with content created by artificial intelligence after a test attempt during the presidential election in Taiwan, Microsoft has warned, UNN reports citing The Guardian.

Details

According to a report by the company's threat analysis group released on Friday, the US tech firm said it expects Chinese state-backed cyber groups to target high-profile elections in 2024, also involving North Korea.

"With people in India, South Korea, and the United States heading to the polls, we are likely to see Chinese cyber actors and influencers, as well as some North Korean cyber actors, working to target these elections," the report says.

Microsoft said that "at the very least," China will create and distribute AI-generated content on social media that "will benefit their position in this high-profile election.

The company added that the impact of AI-generated content has been negligible, but warned that the situation could change.

"While the impact of such content on undecided audiences remains low, China's increasing experimentation with augmenting memes, video, and audio will continue - and may eventually prove effective," Microsoft said.

Microsoft's report says that China has already attempted to conduct a disinformation campaign using artificial intelligence in Taiwan's presidential election in January. The company said it was the first time it had seen a state-backed organization use AI-generated content in an attempt to influence an election abroad.

A Beijing-backed group called Storm 1376, also known as Spamouflage or Dragonbridge, was very active during the Taiwanese elections. Its attempts to influence the election included posting a fake audio on YouTube of Terry Gou, the candidate who withdrew from the November election, endorsing another candidate. Microsoft said the clip was "most likely created by artificial intelligence." YouTube removed the content before it became available to many users.

A Beijing-backed group released a series of AI-generated memes about the eventually successful candidate William Lai-a pro-sovereignty candidate opposed by Beijing-that made unsubstantiated claims against Lai, accusing him of embezzling public funds. There has also been an increase in the use of AI-generated TV news anchors, a tactic also used by Iran, with the "anchor" making unsubstantiated claims about Lai's private life, including the birth of children out of wedlock.

Microsoft said that the news anchors were created using the CapCut tool developed by the Chinese company ByteDance, the owner of TikTok.

Microsoft added that Chinese groups are continuing influence campaigns in the United States. The report said that Beijing-backed actors are using social media accounts to pose "divisive questions" and try to understand issues that divide voters in the United States.

"This could be done to gather intelligence and accurate data on key voting demographics ahead of the US presidential election," Microsoft said in a blog post accompanying the report.

One message on X (formerly Twitter) mentioned a $118 billion bipartisan US bill that combined a $20 billion contribution to the US-Mexico border with a $75 billion package for Ukraine and Israel. It asked: "What is your reaction?" Another noted the loss of an F-35 fighter jet in South Carolina last year, saying that "only under the Biden administration" could a valuable piece of military hardware have been lost - although wreckage was discovered shortly afterward - and asked: "What do you think about that?

Addendum

The report was published the same week that a White House-appointed official oversight panel said a "cascade of errors" at Microsoft allowed Chinese state-backed cyber operators to hack into the email accounts of senior U.S. officials. Last month, the US and UK governments accused Chinese-backed hackers of waging a multi-year cyber campaign targeting politicians, journalists and businessmen, as well as election observers in the UK.