China is using artificial intelligence to confuse American voters and sow discord ahead of the 2024 U.S.presidential election, a new report says.
According to Microsoft, the six-month effort in China appears to have used an artificial intelligence generator capable of both producing visually stunning images and improving them over time.
Microsoft said: "We have observed actors with ties to China leveraging AI-generated visual content in a wide range of campaigns that focus on politically divisive topics such as gun violence and denigrate U.S. politicians and symbols." The report also
said : "We can expect that China will continue to refine this technology over time, but how and when it will be deployed on a large scale remains to be seen."
China dismissed Microsoft's findings on Thursday.
"In recent years, some Western media and think tanks have accused China of using artificial intelligence to create fake social media accounts to spread so-called 'pro-China' information," Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the United States, told Voice of America (VOA) in an email. "These remarks are full of bias and malicious speculation against China, which China firmly opposes."
According to Microsoft, actors associated with the Chinese government appear to be spreading AI-generated images on social media while impersonating people from across the political spectrum. American voters. The focus is on issues related to race, economic issues and ideology.
In one case, Microsoft researchers noted that an image of the Statue of Liberty was altered to show the goddess holding both a traditional torch and what appeared to be an automatic gun.
The image was captioned "Goddess of Violence" and another line of text warned that democracy and freedom were being "abandoned".
But researchers say there are clear signs that the image was generated using artificial intelligence, including that the statue has more than five fingers on one hand.
Regardless, early evidence suggests these efforts are working.
"This relatively high-quality visual content has attracted higher levels of engagement from real social media users," according to a Microsoft report published alongside the blog post.
"Despite common AI-generated metrics, users are retweeting this visual content more frequently," the report added.
Additionally, Microsoft's report said there are Chinese state media employees in China posing as "independent social media influencers."
These influencers are present on most Western social media sites and tend to push out lifestyle content and promotions targeted at local audiences.
Microsoft reports that these influencers have built a following of at least 103 million people in 40 languages to date.
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