China-affiliated threat actors are ramping up the use of AI to influence and sow division in the US and other countries, according to a new report by the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC).
The researchers highlighted how Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-affiliated actors are publishing AI-generated content on social media to amplify controversial domestic issues and criticize the current administration in the US.
In one example, the group Storm-1376, which specializes in influence operations, spread conspiratorial narratives about the Hawaii wildfires in August 2023 across multiple social media platforms.
These posts alleged that the US government had deliberately set the fires to test a military-grade “weather weapon.” Storm-1376 used AI-generated images of burning coastal roads and residences to make the content more eye-catching and posted the texts in at least 31 languages.
In another case, the group launched a social media campaign about the Kentucky train derailment, which took place during the Thanksgiving holiday. These posts spread the narrative that the US government may have caused the derailment and is “deliberately hiding something.”
Storm-1376’s influence campaigns also aimed to stoke discord in countries in East Asia. This included using AI-generated memes and images criticizing the Japanese government after Japan began releasing treated radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean August 2023.
These messages were delivered indiscriminately across social media platforms in numerous languages, including Japanese, Korean and English.
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