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U.S. elections face more threats than ever from foreign actors due to rapid advances in artificial intelligence, a top U.S. intelligence official told lawmakers Wednesday.
Federal, state and local officials tasked with protecting voting integrity face a “diverse and complex” threat environment, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told the Senate Intelligence Committee during a hearing on risks to the 2024 election. . But she also said the federal government has “never been better prepared” to protect elections, thanks to lessons learned since Russia attempted to influence voters in 2016.
This year, “Russia remains the most active foreign threat in our elections,” Haines said. Russia's goal is to use a “vast multimedia influence apparatus” encompassing state-run media, intelligence agencies, and online trolls to “undermine trust in American democratic institutions, exacerbate socio-political divisions in the United States, and undermine Western influence over Ukraine.” Including ‘degrading support’.
But it's a crowded field, Haines added, with China, Iran and other foreign actors also trying to sway U.S. voters.
She also said that new AI technologies that can create realistic “deepfakes” of candidates and the emergence of commercial companies that allow foreign actors to launder their activities are enabling sophisticated influence operations on a larger scale that are difficult to attribute. I said there is.
Wednesday's hearing was the first in a series focused on the election, said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). Lawmakers are trying to avoid a repeat of 2016, when Russian interference embarrassed lawmakers, officials and social media executives. -security.
Since then, “the barriers to entry for foreign malign influence have unfortunately become incredibly small,” Warner said. He added that foreign enemies have more incentive to intervene in U.S. politics to shape their own national interests. At the same time, Americans’ trust in institutions has weakened across the political spectrum.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the committee's top Republican, questioned how those tasked with protecting the election would be received in a climate of distrust. He raised the specter of fake videos targeting him or other candidates just days before the November election.
“Who is responsible for letting people know that this is fake and this is not real?” he asked. “And we ask ourselves, whoever is in charge, what are we doing to protect the credibility of the speaking entity so that the other side doesn’t say, ‘Our government is interfering’ in the election?”
Haines said that in some cases it may make sense for him or another federal agency to debunk false claims, but in other cases it may be better for state or local officials to speak out.