Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/10500315

The Fractured America series is just one example of how artificial intelligence (AI), with its ability to generate high-quality multimedia with minimal effort in seconds, is beginning to shape Beijing’s propaganda efforts.

Henry Ajder, a UK-based expert in generative AI, said while the CGTN series does not attempt to pass itself off as genuine video, it is a clear example of how AI has made it far easier and cheaper to churn out content.

“The reason that they’ve done it in this way is, you could hire an animator, and a voiceover artist to do this, but it would probably end up being more time-consuming. It would probably end up being more expensive to do,” Ajder says.

Chinese state-backed actors have been deploying AI-generated content since at least March 2023, Microsoft said, and such “relatively high-quality visual content has already drawn higher levels of engagement from authentic social media users”.

It is not limited to the U.S., of course. In the run-up to Taiwan’s election in January, for example, more than 100 deepfake videos of fake news anchors attacking outgoing Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen were attributed to China’s Ministry of State Security, the Taipei Times reported, citing national security sources.

Much like the CGTN video series, the videos lacked sophistication, but showed how AI could help spread misinformation at scale, said Chihhao Yu, the co-director of the Taiwan Information Environment Research Center (IORG).