(Photo by GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)
Microsoft suspects a shadowy group with links to the Chinese government will try to influence the US election by using AI-generated content.
On Thursday, the company published a report about a group called “Storm-1376,” which has already been spotted using fake social media accounts and AI-generated content to sow divisions in the US and Taiwan. This includes harnessing AI-generated videos, memes, and audio clips to mislead the public.
The group has also used social media to “pose contentious questions on controversial US domestic issues,” such as US immigration, President Biden’s military policies, and Congress’s funding packages to Ukraine and Israel.
(Credit: Microsoft)"This could be to gather intelligence and precision on key voting demographics ahead of the US presidential election,” the company said in a related blog post.
Microsoft adds that China appears to be increasing its use of AI-generated content in recent months to influence public opinion. For example, Storm-1376 pushed misinformation and conspiracy theories about a train derailment that occurred in Kentucky last November.
"Storm-1376 urged audiences to consider whether the US government may have caused the derailment and is ‘deliberately hiding something,'" Microsoft said. “Some messages even likened the derailment to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor cover-up theories.”
Another influence campaign from the group exploited the wildfires in Maui last August to falsely claim that a US weapon's test was behind the disaster.
(Credit: Microsoft)Storm-1376 also pumped out misinformation ahead of Taiwan’s recent presidential election; they used AI-generated news anchors and also doctored an audio clip of Foxconn owner and election candidate Terry Gou endorsing another candidate. But in some good news, Microsoft says: “There is little evidence these efforts have been successful in swaying opinion.”
The company didn’t explain how it linked Storm-1376 to the Chinese government. But other tech companies, including Meta and Google’s Mandiant, have also spotted the group trying to to influence American public opinion over the past four years. But despite all the efforts, Storm-1376 has usually struggled to sway users.
(Credit: Microsoft)One reason is the poor quality of the content being published by the group; it often contains spelling or grammar mistakes. It can also be hard for any disinformation to resonate within an already-crowded social media landscape.
Still, Microsoft warns: “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.”