U.S. adversaries including Russia, Iran, and China are utilizing artificial intelligence in their efforts to interfere with the U.S. elections, according to the U.S. intelligence community.
Of those three countries, Russia has created the most AI content regarding the election, according to a new update from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released on Monday. It is utilizing text, images, audio, and video in the content the Russians have produced.
"The IC is observing foreign actors, including Russia and Iran, use generative AI technology to boost their respective U.S. election efforts. ... Our update today makes clear that this is now happening here. Foreign actors are using AI to more quickly and convincingly" produce that content, an ODNI official told reporters.
The official said their use of AI is more like "an accelerant rather than a revolutionary tool," adding that "information operations are the threat, and AI is an enabler, generative AI is how to improve and accelerate aspects of foreign influence operations. But thus far, the IC has not seen it revolutionize such operations."
The update also noted that Russia is still boosting former President Donald Trump and denigrating Vice President Kamala Harris.
In one example of Russia's influence attempts that was not AI generated, a Kremlin-aligned troll farm recently faked a video laundered through a website staged to look like a San Francisco media outlet that fabricated inaccurate claims about Harris's involvement in a hit-and-run accident, Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center revealed last week. The website was created only days earlier.
Comparatively, Iran has used AI to write fake news articles for fake news websites it set up that pose as legitimate news outlets. These outlets, and corresponding social media posts, have targeted Americans across the political spectrum on polarizing issues including on presidential candidates.
Iran's election interference operations unrelated to AI include hacking the Trump campaign and then offering that information to both U.S. media outlets and the then-Biden campaign.
“This malicious cyber activity is the latest example of Iran’s multipronged approach, as noted in the joint August statement, to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our electoral process,” the FBI said in its announcement. “As the lead for threat response, the FBI has been tracking this activity, has been in contact with the victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information in order to pursue and disrupt the threat actors responsible.”
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China, for its part, is not boosting either candidate ahead of the election, though it is using AI to stoke division among Americans by promoting divisive U.S. issues like abortion and immigration. More broadly, Beijing's interference operations also seek to shape the global opinion of itself.