China, Russia and Iran are among the foreign adversaries stepping up their efforts to influence the 2024 elections with campaigns aided by artificial intelligence, the FBI warned on Thursday.
“Election threats are more diverse and expansive than ever before,” a senior FBI official said on a conference call with reporters.
And although each adversary has its own approach with different nuances and prerogatives, “sowing discord and undermining democracy is consistent at all levels”, added the official.
China, in particular, is expanding its influence efforts by creating fake social media accounts to “promote narratives and sow divisions,” mirroring Russia’s efforts in previous elections.
The agency said artificial intelligence tools are an underlying trend in many of its operations.
“Not only does this lower the barrier of entry for people to work in this space or create fake content,” the employee said.
“It also really increases the ability of our sophisticated nation-state actors to scale their operations and really make them bigger than we’ve seen before.”
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence noted in its annual threat assessment released in February that the Chinese government’s efforts are based on a “desire to marginalize China’s critics and widen U.S. social divisions.”
“Beijing’s increasing efforts to actively exploit perceived social divisions in the US using its online personas bring it closer to Moscow’s influence operations playbook,” the report states.
The agency has also previously warned about China’s hacking prowess, noting that the US is vastly outnumbered in the number of personnel dedicated to looking for ways to gain access to different systems, including various forms of infrastructure.
But authorities on Thursday largely focused on Russian efforts to access U.S. election-related systems, such as state and local networks and voter registration data.
“Russia can use its access to these government networks to undermine confidence in US electoral integrity and reinforce influence operations,” the official said.
Other major concerns ahead of the election include the growing threats made to election workers across the country.
A Brennan Center for Justice survey released earlier this month found that 38 percent of election workers said they had received threats, while more than half expressed concerns about the safety of their colleagues.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
