U.S. intelligence officials raise alarm about new AI threat to elections

U.S. officials are sounding the alarm about foreign adversaries’ use of artificial intelligence to manipulate Americans and say the new technologies have been used as accelerants.

China, Iran and Russia are all looking to leverage social media to dupe Americans ahead of the November elections, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

“AI is a malign influence accelerant; it is being used to more quickly and convincingly tailor synthetic content, including audio and video,” a DNI official said. “In the run-up to November’s general election, we are monitoring foreign actors seeking to create deepfakes of politicians, flood the information space with false or misleading information to sow doubt about what is real, and to amplify narratives.”