China to misuse AI for election targeting in India and US: Microsoft

China may deploy Artificial Intelligence-generated content via social media to alter public opinion for furthering its geopolitical interests during the upcoming elections in India, South Korea and the US, according to Microsoft.

While voting for 543 Lok Sabha seats in the country will begin on April 19 and continue until June 4 across seven phases, South Koreans will go into polling for general elections on April 10.

Presidential elections for the United States will be held on November 5.

"With major elections taking place around the world this year, particularly in India, South Korea and the United States, we assess that China will, at a minimum, create and amplify AI-generated content to benefit its interests," Clint Watts, General Manager, Microsoft Threat Analysis Center said in a blog post.

Even as the chances of such content affecting election results is relatively low, China's growing experimentation in augmenting memes, videos, and audio is most likely going to continue, and may become more effective as time progresses, he said.

China will do this alongside North Korea, according to the Microsoft blogpost. 

The Microsoft Threat Analysis Centre published these insights in its latest East Asia report this week.

China is making use of fake social media accounts to seek voter opinion on the most polarising aspects to sow division and likely affect results of the US presidential election in its favour.

China has also started using more AI-generated content in order to further its goals around the world.

North Korea has ramped up its heists in cryptocurrency and supply chain attacks for funding and furthering its military goals and intelligence collection. 

It has also started using AI for making its operations more effective and efficient.

As per the report, Beijing is all set to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in October.

On the other hand, North Korea will keep on pushing its key advanced weapons programmes forward, the report suggested.

"Meanwhile, as populations in India, South Korea, and the United States head to the polls, we are likely to see Chinese cyber and influence actors, and to some extent, North Korean cyber actors, work toward targeting these elections," it said.

China will at least form and boost AI-generated content for benefitting its positions in these high-profile elections, it said.

"While Chinese cyber actors have long conducted reconnaissance of US political institutions, we are prepared to see influence actors interact with Americans for engagement and to potentially research perspectives on US politics," the report said.

As North Korea embarks upon new government policies and pursues ambitious plans for weapons testing, we can expect increasingly sophisticated cryptocurrency heists and supply chain attacks targeted at the defence sector, serving to both funnel money into the regime and facilitate the development of new military capabilities, it added.

(With PTI Inputs)