AI causes uncontrollable disinformation that may be worse in worse

Sometimes distinguishing the content created by AI from real images is very complicated. General Paul Nakasone, former director of the NSA and now director of the Vanderbilt Institute, sounded the alarm at the Conf Conf conference this month where many hackers had gathered.

Foreign political interference increases with AI

“We now observe an ability to develop and disseminate with efficiency, speed and a scale that we have never seen before”he told the journalist.

Internal documents shared with researchers from the Vanderbilt Institute for National Security (Vanderbilt University) teach us the existence of Golaxy, a company based in China.

According to experts, the company uses generative AI to carry out influence operations in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Researchers have notably learned that Golaxy uses AI to analyze social networks profiles and create content that seems authentic, adapts in real time and avoids detection.

The company is based in particular on the open reasoning model source of Deepseek, who has lagged behind in the face of the impossibility of using Nvidia chipsto create avatars capable of adapting their messages to specific audiences and even imitating real people.

Golaxy would operate in close collaboration with the Chinese government and it is lent to the deployment of its virtual characters just before the Taiwanese election of 2024. The AI ​​would also have been used to counter the opposition to the 2020 national security law which ended Hong Kong’s autonomy.

The documents also show us that Golaxy has created profiles for at least 117 members of the US Congress and more than 2,000 political figures and opinion leaders in the United States. Golaxy denies all these allegations and Axios could not verify them.

Russia and China have been investing for decades in their capacity for interference operations. Russia also has some success beyond its borders with strategies such as Bots farms and legitimate media infiltration to disseminate false stories.

For China, it is a little more complicated to disseminate its propaganda outside its borders, hence the fact that it is possible that the Chinese communist party accelerates its efforts based on the generative AI.

And for good reason, according to Paul Nakasone, opponents have used Chatgpt and other chatbots since their public provision. A pro-Russian propaganda group uses AI to imitate legitimate Western media organizations like ABC Or Politico. As for China, we are talking about a robust network of subcontractors to carry out computer attacks against the United States.

C. Shawn EIB, surveys manager at Alethea, a disinformation detection company, explains that generative AI lowers the entry cost enough for many more companies to provide this type of service.

The United States is helpless because of the Trump administration

And that is not reassuring for the United States when you know that theTrump administration dismantles many essential offices To fight against foreign disinformation.

The CISA, the FBI and the State departments each deleted their offices which worked with private companies to exchange information on foreign influence operations.

But then, how to fight the rise of a disinformation so credible and difficult to detect? According to the researchers, two options arise. Technological advances and investments in private personnel. “This is where the private sector must help us. In the future, we need a new approach where we can still innovate while remaining ahead of the threat”explains Paul Nakasone.

And the situation is all the more serious when you know that social networks are much less severe with disinformation and hateful content since the election of Donald Trump, Meta in mind.

Fortunately, in Europe, there remains the regulatory pressure that could push the platforms to rebuild their confidence and security team to detect the disinformation generated by the AI.

And there is no doubt that Golaxy is probably only a part of the iceberg in this new online information struggle.

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