Microsoft warned that state-backed Chinese cyber groups – with assistance from North Korean actors – “are likely to target” the presidential and legislative elections in countries such as the US, South Korea, and India this year. Their primary tactic is projected to be the creation and dissemination on social media of AI-generated content skewed to “benefit their positions” in these races.

“While the impact of such content in swaying audiences remains low, China’s increasing experimentation in augmenting memes, videos, and audio will continue – and may prove effective down the line,” Microsoft cautioned in the report released Friday.

The company cited China’s recent “dry run” utilising AI-synthesised disinformation during Taiwan’s January presidential election as a harbinger of this emerging threat. Microsoft assessed that a pro-Beijing group known as Storm 1376 or Spamouflage Dragon made the first documented attempt by a state actor to influence a foreign vote using AI-manufactured content.

Tactics deployed by the Chinese-backed operatives included posting fake audio clips likely “generated by AI” that depicted a former presidential candidate endorsing a rival, as well as AI-generated memes leveling unfounded corruption allegations against the ultimately victorious pro-sovereignty candidate William Lai. The group also created AI-rendered “news anchors” to broadcast disinformation about Lai’s personal life.

“As populations in India, South Korea, and the United States head to the polls, we are likely to see Chinese cyber and influence actors, and to some extent North Korean cyber actors, work toward targeting these elections,” the Microsoft report stated.

The company added that Chinese groups are already attempting to map divisive issues and voting blocs in the US through orchestrated social media campaigns, potentially “to gather intelligence and precision on key voting demographics ahead of the US Presidential election.”

While flagging the risk, Microsoft acknowledged that AI-enabled disinformation has so far achieved limited success in shaping public opinion globally. But it warned that Beijing’s growing investment and increasing sophistication with the technology poses an escalating threat to the integrity of democratic elections worldwide.

(Photo by Element5 Digital)

See also: How to safeguard your business from AI-generated deepfakes

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Developers will also only be able to deploy these technologies after labelling the potential fallibility or unreliability of the output generated.

Furthermore, the document outlines plans for implementing a “consent popup” mechanism to inform users about potential defects or errors produced by AI. It also mandates the labelling of deepfakes with permanent unique metadata or other identifiers to prevent misuse.

In addition to these measures, the advisory orders all intermediaries or platforms to ensure that any AI model product – including large language models (LLM) – does not permit bias, discrimination, or threaten the integrity of the electoral process.

Some industry figures have criticised India’s plans as going too far:

Developers are requested to comply with the advisory within 15 days of its issuance. It has been suggested that after compliance and application for permission to release a product, developers may be required to perform a demo for government officials or undergo stress testing.

Although the advisory is not legally binding at present, it signifies the government’s expectations and hints at the future direction of regulation in the AI sector.

“We are doing it as an advisory today asking you (the AI platforms) to comply with it,” said IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar. He added that this stance would eventually be encoded in legislation.

“Generative AI or AI platforms available on the internet will have to take full responsibility for what the platform does, and cannot escape the accountability by saying that their platform is under testing,” continued Chandrasekhar, as reported by local media.

(Photo by Naveed Ahmed on Unsplash)

See also: Elon Musk sues OpenAI over alleged breach of nonprofit agreement

Want to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is co-located with other leading events including BlockX, Digital Transformation Week, and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo.

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The study believes government departments including the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Department of Science and Technology (DST) should take responsibility for building these relationships.

“Exchanging best practices and learnings from prior initiatives is one way of strengthening cooperation,” noted the study.

Collaboration between the countries is expected to help formulate strategies which tackle social and economic challenges by adopting technologies such as AI, machine learning, and other advancements such as the IoT.

The researchers wrote in the ‘Advance artificial intelligence for growth: Leveraging AI & robotics for India’s economic transformation’ report:

“While academia and the private sector focus their research activities on finding applications with diverse usage, the public sector, with its various schemes (Digital India, Make in India, Skill India, etc.), could identify areas where specific applications of AI and robotics can be utilised to increase reach, effectiveness and efficiency, thus giving direction to existing innovation across different fields.”

Some of the other measures which could drive AI growth is the creation of data banks and exchanges which allow the streaming of information from various industries. This data can then be used for training new machine learning models.

The report also notes an overhaul of the education system – in particular, secondary school and university curricula – will help to foster AI interest and prepare the next generation workforce.

Both of these suggestions feed into the researchers’ final idea, and that’s to set up centres of excellence. At these centres, inter-disciplinary research can be conducted across fields such as law, medicine, engineering, management, and social sciences.

“Government could act as a catalyst in furthering growth by opening training centres focused on equipping young individuals with high-end skills in the field of analytics and ML, which, in turn, could be tied in with inviting data-driven global enterprises to set up their centres of excellence in India,” the researchers say.

The full report can be downloaded here (PDF)

What are your thoughts on the researchers’ suggestions? Let us know in the comments.

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