Russian and Iranian entities used AI-powered disinformation campaigns to interfere in the 2024 US presidential election, with Russia's Center for Geopolitical Expertise using generative AI to create fake news content across over 100 websites and producing deepfake videos targeting vice presidential candidates.
The US Treasury Department sanctioned Russian and Iranian entities for using AI to interfere in the 2024 presidential election. The Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise (CGE), affiliated with Russia's GRU intelligence agency and founded by Aleksandr Dugin, used generative AI tools to rapidly create disinformation content. The GRU provided financial support for CGE to build and maintain AI servers, operate a network of at least 100 websites designed to imitate legitimate news outlets, and distribute false information while obscuring their Russian origins. CGE also manipulated videos to produce baseless accusations against a 2024 vice presidential candidate, likely referring to fake videos targeting Democratic nominee Tim Walz. The Iranian entity, called the Cognitive Design Production Center, is a subsidiary of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that planned influence operations since at least 2023 to incite socio-political tensions among US voters. The Treasury imposed sanctions on these entities and CGE director Valery Korovin, freezing US-based assets and prohibiting US persons from conducting business with them. The sanctions represent the latest effort to combat foreign election interference following similar Russian and Iranian activities in previous US elections.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to conduct large-scale disinformation campaigns, malicious surveillance, or targeted and sophisticated automated censorship and propaganda, with the aim of manipulating political processes, public opinion, and behavior.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed