The intelligence community warned Monday that foreign adversaries are using artificial intelligence to enhance ongoing disinformation efforts.
An official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said Russia is the top creator of such content, spreading false information through text, images, audio, and video, most of it aimed at pushing divisive issues or creating false narratives about U.S. political figures.
“This content is also consistent with Russia’s broader efforts to boost the former president’s candidacy and denigrate the Vice President and the Democratic Party, including through conspiratorial narratives,” the official said.
The warning is a shift from July, when officials said they had seen U.S. adversaries push AI-created content abroad, but not yet in the U.S.
Iran is also using AI-created content but has used the tools primarily to create fake news websites, including translating content into Spanish to spread disinformation to various U.S. populations.
“One of the benefits of generative AI models is to overcome various language barriers, and so Iran can use the tools to help do that,” the ODNI official said.
Iran, like Russia and China, has focused on issues like immigration, and has also pushed disinformation regarding the Israel-Gaza conflict.
“The reason why Iran is focused on immigration is because they perceive it to be a divisive issue in the United States, and they identify themes with which they think will create further discord in the United States,” the official said.
The official noted that not all false content shared in recent weeks has been creating using AI, noting that a fake video made with a woman claiming to have been hit by Vice President Kamala Harris in a hit-and-run was a “staged video.”
The official nonetheless noted the intelligence community agreed with a Microsoft assessment that Russia was behind the video and added that it has likewise created content that alters Harris’s voice.
