Ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Chinese cyber and influence operatives along with North Korean cyber agents may divert their efforts to interfere with the electoral process, an Indian media agency quoted a Microsoft analysis.
“With major elections taking place around the world this year, particularly in India, South Korea and the United States of America, we asses that China will at a minimum, create and amplify AI generated content to benefit its interests,” the Microsoft threat analysis centre general manager Clint Watts said.
The tech giant report further claimed that China will at a minimum will create and amplify AI generated content and that benefits their positions in these high-profile elections. While the impact of such content in swaying audiences remains low. China’s increasing experimentation in augmenting memes, videos and audios will continue and may prove effective down the line, the analysis added.
The allegations come after Chinese cyber and influence actors have been actively engaging in spying and operations across various regions. The cyber actions have refined their techniques, utilizing AI generated content to stir divisions within the United States and exacerbate rifts in the Asia-Pacific Region, including Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.
The complex campaigns using AI generated memes and audio content have targeted both domestic issues in the US and geopolitical tensions in Asia. AI generated news anchors produced by third party technology firms using Byte Dance Capcut Tool have been featured in numerous campaigns, including those about Taiwanese officials and issues in Myanmar.
Since at least February 2023, the actor known as Storm-1376, has significantly increased its activities and use of AI created news anchors. This method of using AI to manipulate videos have been previously employed against the same dissident.
Moreover, Storm-1376 launched a collection of AI crafted memes targeting William Lai, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate of Taiwanese politics presents a countdown to remove the DPP from power, the Microsoft report said. Starting from April 19 to June 1, 2024, India will cast their votes to choose 543 members of the Lower House (Lok Sabha) of the Indian Parliament.
The general election polls will be held in seven phases, April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1, with Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh conducting voting across all seven stages. The results will be announced on June 4, 2024. The term of the 17th Lok Sabha is set to expire on June 16, 2024.
