Once again, China is harnessing new Western technology to attack and undermine the US at home and overseas. According to a new report from Microsoft, this time, China is using AI-generated fake social media accounts to influence the outcome of the upcoming US presidential elections.
The report, Same targets, new playbooks: East Asia threat actors employ unique methods, details China’s recent attempts to discredit the US government, including misinformation regarding: the Kentucky train derailment in November; the Maui wildfires in August; the disposal of Japanese nuclear wastewater, illegal drug use in the US as well as exacerbating the increasing racial tensions across the US.
Attempts to exploit the West’s ‘always-on’ internet culture include online accusations that the US government is “deliberately hiding something” concerning the derailment of a train carrying molten sulfur in Kentucky, linking the derailment to conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. China is also making unfounded claims that the Maui wildfires of August 2023 were deliberately set by the US government to test a military-grade “weather weapon”.
China accuses US of poisoning water supplies
According to the Microsoft report, China is now also using fake social media accounts to level accusations that the US government is intentionally poisoning other countries’ water supplies to maintain “water hegemony”. This is part of a broader multilingual campaign focused on Japan and its government’s decision to dispose of treated radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. A Chinese threat actor has also been seen to be casting doubt on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) scientific assessment that the disposal was safe. According to Microsoft, China has also begun AI-generated media to exacerbate further rifts across the Asia-Pacific region—including Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.
Microsoft and OpenAI also report that a North Korean actor whom they have named “Emerald Sleet “is now using tools powered by AI large-language models (LLMs) to make North Korea’s international cybercrime operations more effective and efficient. Heists totaling between $600 million and $1 billion occurred in 2023 alone, funding the rogue state’s nuclear missile program.
