Lesser impact from AI amid rise in influence campaigns online: Report

Mandiant, a Google-owned cybersecurity company in the United States, reported on Thursday that it had observed an increase in recent years in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to carry out manipulative information campaigns online, despite the technology's relatively limited use in other digital breaches.

Since 2019, many instances of AI-generated content, such as fake profile photographs, being utilised in politically driven internet influence efforts have been discovered by researchers at the Virginia-based company. 

According to the report, these included initiatives by groups supporting the governments of Russia, China, Iran, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Cuba, Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador, and El Salvador.

Experts expressed worries 

It occurs at a time when generative AI models like ChatGPT have just become quite popular, making it much simpler to produce convincingly fake text, photos, videos, and computer code. Security experts have issued warnings about the usage of these models by cyber criminals. 

According to experts, generative AI would make it possible for organisations with limited resources to develop higher-quality material for influence campaigns at scale.  

As per Sandra Joyce, Vice President of Mandiant Intelligence, a pro-China information campaign dubbed Dragonbridge has grown 'exponentially' since it started by targeting pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong in 2019 across 30 social platforms and 10 different languages. 

However, these campaigns had a modest effect. Not a lot of victories there from an effectiveness perspective, Joyce noted. They haven't yet significantly altered the threat landscape, in her opinion.

Impact of AI was modest 

China has previously refuted the U.S. claims that it participated in similar influence operations. 

Mandiant, claimed that it hadn't yet observed AI playing a significant part in threats from North Korea, Russia, Iran, or China. According to experts, the usage of AI in digital breaches is anticipated to stay modest in the foreseeable future.

According to Joyce, "So far, we haven't seen a single incident response where AI played a role." They haven't actually been put to any kind of practical use that goes beyond what is possible using commonly available tools, according to our observations. But she added: "We can be very confident that this is going to be a problemme that gets bigger over time."