Chinese Hackers Using AI Tools To Influence Upcoming Elections

By exploiting the AI tools deepfake hackers could make videos or audios of political candidates to spread misinformation or disinformation, which may be used in election campaigns.

Large language models (LLMs) can also enable them to produce realistic but misleading content at scale, thereby exacerbating division and fake news on social media.

Recently, cybersecurity analysts at Microsoft discovered that Chinese hackers are actively exploiting AI tools to influence the upcoming elections.

State-sponsored actors leverage evolving tactics to advance geopolitical agendas. Beijing employs fake social media accounts and AI-generated content to sow discord and influence U.S. elections.

AI Tools To Influence Elections

Besides this, North Korea has increased the pace of cryptocurrency theft and supply chain attacks with AI to fund military expansion.

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The most recent Microsoft East Asia threat report highlights these facts as further evidence that nation-state threats are ever-evolving.

The coordinated Chinese campaign on social media to influence the U.S. elections is going, with fake accounts pretending to be voters and making louder content about climate change, immigration, and race via original as well as recycled posts.

In recent times, “polling” has been employed to establish voter opinion on controversial matters that could allow for customization of information operations during peak seasons associated with the presidential election cycle. 

China’s IO in the US exploited events to serve strategic interests by casting a bad light on America.

They alleged that the U.S. intentionally started Maui wildfires, insinuated that the U.S. may have caused a Kentucky train derailment, and accused the U.S. of water poisoning for power sustenance. 

Such methods also included calling into question Japan’s wastewater disposal system as part of efforts to undermine IAEA findings.

The 2024 Taiwanese presidential election marked the first known instance of AI-generated content being used in foreign influence operations by China-affiliated Storm-1376. 

They uploaded what appeared to be computer-generated audio of former candidate Terry Gou supporting someone else, which was quickly removed from YouTube.

The first-ever country that has employed AI in interfering with elections seems to be China.

Storm-1376 increased AI-generated memes mocking Taiwanese officials and dissidents, including AI news anchors, since early 2023.

North Korea prioritized crypto theft and supply chain attacks against adversaries to fund weapons, stealing over $3 billion since 2017, $600 million-$1 billion in 2023 alone.

Used AI tools by Emerald Sleet group to enhance operations against the U.S.-Japan-South Korea alliance before Microsoft and OpenAI disrupted their activities.

Major elections in 2024 risk China amplifying AI-generated content to serve its interests, though the impact remains limited for now. 

However, China’s AI meme/video/audio augmentation experiments persist.

Expect North Korea’s crypto heists and supply chain attacks on the defense sector to fund weapons programs.

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