DOJ Stops Russian AI Election Interference
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced the halt of a Russian operation that created AI fake social media accounts to secretly broadcast content backing the Kremlin.
This move came just four months before the US presidential elections, as experts are worried of foreign actors’ attempts to influence the voting process using hacking means and social media.
The DoJ has been able to get the approval from the court to capture two web addresses and search around 1,000 social media accounts that were part of this process. The operation was mainly led by a private intelligence group that includes Russian intelligence officers and a senior employee from government-backed media outlet Russia Today (RT).
To confirm the disruption of this operation, Attorney General Merrick Garland, stated, “With these actions, the Justice Department has disrupted a Russian-government backed, AI-enabled propaganda campaign to use a bot farm to spread disinformation in the United States and abroad.”
US officials are also monitoring for any incident of interference that may occur related to the upcoming elections. Moreover, the fake AI social media accounts that were created on X were sharing content that supports the Kremlin, such as videos of Russian President Vladimir Putin and criticisms of the Ukrainian government.
The investigation of this operation was conducted by both US and Dutch authorities given that it was operated through a server located in the Netherlands.
Enhanced Technological Tactics
The spokespeople for the Russian Ambassy in Washington and RT were requested to comment on the issue but did not respond. It is worth noting that the AI platform used by the group for the creation of a huge number of fake social media accounts shows that disinformation tactics by Russian have become very advanced.
Final Thoughts
The Department of Justice wants to make sure elections are clear and fair, without outside interference. But as technology and AI quickly advance, the challenges keep increasing, thus making it harder to detect and prevent any harmful acts that are caused by such technology from occurring.
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