Today is
Monday September 23, 2024
(WASHINGTON) -- Russia and Iran are using artificial intelligence to influence the American election, U.S. intelligence officials said on Monday.
"Foreign actors are using AI to more quickly and convincingly tailor synthetic content," an official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said. "The IC (intelligence community) considers AI a malign influence, accelerant, not yet a revolutionary influence tool."
Officials saw AI being used in overseas elections, but it has now made its way to American elections, according to intelligence officials, who says there is evidence Russian manipulated Vice President Kamala Harris' speeches.
Russia "has generated the most AI content related to the election, and has done so across all four mediums, text, images, audio and video," an ODNI official said.
"These items include AI generated content of and about prominent U.S. figures whose content is also consistent with Russia's broader efforts to boost the former president's candidacy and denigrate the Vice President and the Democratic Party, including through conspiratorial Americans," according to an ODNI official.
Russian AI content has sought to exploit hot-button issues to further divide Americans, the ODNI said.
"The IC also assesses that Russian influence actors were responsible for altering videos of the vice president's speeches," the official said.
Russia's altering of videos runs the "gamut" from painting her in a personal bad light, and compared to her opponent and they are using both AI and staged videos, the official said.
The country was targeting President Joe Biden's former campaign, but once he dropped out of the race it had to "adapt" to targeting the vice president's campaign, the official said.
"Russia is a much more sophisticated actor in the influence space in general, and they have a better understanding of how U.S. elections work and where to target and what state what states to target," an ODNI official said.
Iran has also used AI in its election influence efforts, including help in writing fake social media posts and news articles to further Iran's objectives, which are to denigrate the former President Donald Trump's candidacy, the official said.
Iran is also using AI to sow discord on hot-button issues, an official said.
"One of the benefits of generative AI models is to overcome various language barriers, and so Iran can use the tools to help do that, and so one of the issues that could be attractive or using foreign language for that is immigration," an ODNI official said. "The reason why Iran is focused on immigration is because they perceive it to be a divisive issue in the United States, and they identify themes, and this is broadly speaking, they identify themes with which they think will create further discord the United States."
Officials have previously assessed Iran prefers that Vice President Harris win the 2024 election.
China has also been using AI to generate fake news anchors and social media content with pro-China propaganda, they said.
The intelligence community assesses that AI is an "accelerant" to influence operations, but doesn't yet have the capability to be believable.
Adversaries are also using AI to go back and forth with people in the comments.
As to whether what occurred in 2020 might happen again -- where the election might not be called on Election Day -- this period is something the IC is "watching" closely and is of "great interest."
"The various influence actors have fairly steady state influence operations that seek the stoking of division and undermine U.S. democracy," an ODNI official said.
During the Democratic primaries, the use of an AI generated robocall was used to give misinformation about voting the result was state criminal charges being brought against the individual who sent the recording and an FCC fine.
A foreign adversary engaging in that tactic would be a "top concern" for intelligence officials, an official said.
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(WASHINGTON) -- The Biden administration is looking to ban Chinese-made software from cars because of national security concerns, the Commerce Department announced on Monday.
The Bureau of Industry and Security, part of the Commerce Department, is expected to publish a rule that "focuses on hardware and software" of the software connected in cars and developed in China.
"Cars today have cameras, microphones, GPS tracking, and other technologies connected to the internet. It doesn't take much imagination to understand how a foreign adversary with access to this information could pose a serious risk to both our national security and the privacy of U.S. citizens," said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. "To address these national security concerns, the Commerce Department is taking targeted, proactive steps to keep PRC and Russian-manufactured technologies off American roads."
The software could be exploited by malicious Chinese actors, and in some cases "allow for external connectivity and autonomous driving capabilities in connected vehicles," the Commerce Department said.
The proposed rule would apply to all wheeled on-road vehicles such as cars, trucks, and buses, but would exclude vehicles not used on public roads like agricultural or mining vehicles, and would start to take effect in 2027 models, and be fully integrated in 2030 models.
The rule also bans technology with a nexus to the PRC or Russia from selling connected vehicles that incorporate hardware or software in the United States, even if the vehicle was made in the United States.
This is the most recent step in the Biden administration's economic actions against China.
Earlier this year, the Biden Administration increased tariff's on steel and aluminum, semiconductors and electric vehicles.
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