cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/48072927
Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday.
The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.
GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance and identifying key public opinion influencers. It analyzes those people’s psychological tendencies, values and linguistic characteristics, including specific dialect expressions, and creates a fictional character with similar traits, the paper reported.
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The fictional characters not only unilaterally spread disinformation, but could also engage in online discussions with their target audience to influence them, it said.
A person working in Taiwan’s AI industry told the newspaper that given the advancement in AI, it is nearly impossible to identify AI-generated characters on social media.
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The Yomiuri Shimbun report said that as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) administration aims to block President William Lai (賴清德) from getting re-elected in 2028, public opinion warfare in the nine-in-one local elections next year — often seen as the prelude to the presidential election — is expected to be intensified.
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How so? Electoral fraud and or foreign election interference are illegal afaik. It’s just - something hard to prove, probably.
The whole Cambridge Analytica( Brexit) isn’t really a showcase as there was no political will to persecute this. There were technically many occasssions the not legally binding referendum could’ve been overthrown, but the UK institutions just didn’t.
Then maybe the real scandal is that all these practices (political astroturfing basically) are still legal, are not seen as election interference.
I agree that these are scandalous practices.( #e)
It’s more that many things need to be proven with evidence and without doubt in a court of law. People are in principle innocent unless proven guilty. I mean lots of criminal bossez don’t get convicted for lack of proof, and or they just make judges" an offer they can’t refuse, like a bullet or some payoff money. Corruptionsand bribery are done in such fashion, afaik.
Having a right, isn’t the same as you getting the right. System doesn’t always work out well for the underdog, unfortunately.