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Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner warns of threat of deep fakes post voting
Senator Mark Warner D-Virginia, briefed ethnic media on how artificial intelligence is being used by foreign actors to manipulate messaging to US voters.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner. / Facebook
Misinformation and disinformation will grow as we get closer to the election, warns Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Senator Mark Warner D-Virginia. “Our greatest vulnerability will be in the hours and in the days after the election.”
Some states have instituted late stage changes to the voting process where votes must be hand counted. U.S. elections are decentralized, Warner said. Counting takes place at individual polling locations, then it’s reported to a county and the state, leaving no way for a foreign adversary to hack into a national system and disrupt the national vote. Some states have changed their laws to require hand counting.“That's just going to take longer. Even if the election is not close at all, deep fake technology may be used to have the appearance of an election official on election day or the day after election appearing to destroy ballots,” he said.
Social media is bombarded by deep fakes and vastly improved disinformation, much of which comes from Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. Senator Mark Warner D-Virginia, briefed ethnic media on how artificial intelligence is being used by foreign actors to manipulate messaging to US voters. He believes the US is more vulnerable to global election interference than it was in 2020..
“We are seeing the level of misinformation and disinformation grow as we get closer to election and we think it will continue to grow, not only up through Election Day, but in many ways, some of our greatest vulnerability will be in the hours and in the days after the election, particularly if it ends up being as close as people presume.”
Improved disinformation tactics by Russia and China, the rise of domestic candidates and groups who are themselves willing to spread disinformation, and the arrival of artificial intelligence programs that allow the rapid creation of images, audio and video difficult to tell from the real thing, are factors making our democracy more vulnerable.
Social Media companies impact elections
Tech companies have cut back their resources in monitoring misinformation.
“The most extreme example, of course, being X or actually even the owner of X, who perpetrates misinformation and disinformation. We have enormous challenges with TikTok because of its ultimate ownership by ByteDance and control by the Communist Party of China. More traditional platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and others have dramatically cut back content moderation efforts.”
Artificial intelligence ensnares the process
Deepfake video technology uses artificial intelligence to create videos of fictitious people who look and sound real. There was an attempt to ensnare a senator.
“Senator Cardin, the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee with his staff, thought they were having a conversation with a Ukrainian official and it ended up being a deep fake. More recently, the Intelligence Committee was very quick in disclosing efforts to accuse the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, Tim Walz of inappropriate behavior. Recently, the Intelligence Committee disclosed efforts to accuse the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, of sexually assaulting one of his former students. It was a case of manipulation using artificial intelligence backed by Russia.” I commend the intelligence community for getting information out as quickly as they did.”
“Historically Russia, back in 2016, disproportionately emphasized misinformation to African-American communities in America. This election cycle, there has been a disproportionate focus of disinformation and misinformation to Latino and Jewish communities in America,” said the Senator.
“Russia probably wants to undermine Harris. Iran probably wants to undermine Trump. These are sophisticated adversaries.”
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