Moscow tries to help Trump's election with AI content - US intelligence
US intelligence accuses Moscow of helping Trump with the AI content (kremlin.ru)
Russia has produced more artificial intelligence (AI)-based content to influence the US presidential election than any other foreign nation. This effort is part of a broader campaign to support Donald Trump, citing Reuters.
A staff member of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), speaking on condition of anonymity, commented during a briefing for journalists on Russia and other countries' use of AI to influence the November 5 vote.
According to the official, AI-generated content created by Moscow is "consistent with Russia's broader efforts to boost the former president's (Trump) candidacy and denigrate the vice president (Harris) and the Democratic Party, including through conspiratorial narratives."
Like other forms of artificial intelligence, generative AI learns from past data to take actions. Using this training, it creates new content, such as text, images, and videos, that appear to have been produced by humans.
The ODNI representative said that Russia is generating more AI content to influence the November elections than any other country, though the volume of this content was not specified.
He said that Russia is a far more experienced player, with a better understanding of how US election work and which targets to focus on.
When asked how Russia is spreading AI-generated content, the official pointed to a July 9 statement from the Justice Department about the dismantling of an alleged Moscow-backed operation that used social media accounts with advanced AI capabilities to distribute content in the US and other countries.
The official said "Russian influence actors" orchestrated a widely publicized video in which a woman claims to have been the victim of a car accident in which Harris fled the scene. However, the video was staged and not AI-generated, he said. Last week, Microsoft reported that its investigation revealed the video to be the result of a covert Russian disinformation operation.
According to the official, China is using AI content to influence its global perception, but not to impact US election outcomes.
Donald Trump has said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy strongly favors Kamala Harris winning the election.
