Microsoft warned that China and North Korea will use artificial intelligence to influence elections in their adversarial nations this year.
The Friday report alleges that the two countries will use AI generated videos, pictures, memes, and recordings to create disrupting fake news stories.
The notice states that in countries who are holding balloting this year, "we are likely to see Chinese cyber and influence actors, and to some extent North Korean cyber actors, work toward targeting these elections."
The tech company alleged that the Chinese government attempted to interfere in January’s Taiwanese election by disseminating “likely AI generated” audio on YouTube, to imitate pro-independence candidate and former Foxconn CEO, Terry Gou.
Taiwan’s incoming president, Lai Ching-te, was said to be a victim of an AI generated ‘news anchor’ who accused the lawmaker of public corruption and fathering children with several mistresses.
As far as the United Stated is concerned, Microsoft cited last August’s wildfires in Hawaii as an example of how Beijing can create misinformation campaigns. In this example, they alleged that China created false internet stories to suggest that the U.S. government used a “weather weapon” to start the inferno.
Although Microsoft insisted that the effectiveness of these actions "remains low," they cautioned readers that China's "increasing experimentation in augmenting memes, videos, and audio will continue, and may prove effective down the line."
Related Story: Is CCP-Linked TikTok Influencing American Youth to Be Anti-Israel?