Microsoft warns of Iranian AI efforts to influence 2024 U.S. presidential election

Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Microsoft warned in a Thursday report that Iran is seeking to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election with cyber AI-enabled campaigns targeting both left-leaning and conservative voters.

"In recent weeks, groups connected with the Iranian government have upped two kinds of activity," Microsoft said in a statement. "First, they've laid the groundwork for influence campaigns on trending election-related topics and begun to activate these campaigns in an apparent effort to stir up controversy or sway voters -- especially in swing states. Second, they've launched operations that Microsoft assesses are designed to gain intelligence on political campaigns and help enable them to influence the elections in the future."

The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Report said Iran is working online to target both U.S. left-leaning political audiences and conservatives.

One Iranian group is using covert so-called news sites like Nio Thinker to attack Donald Trump as an "opioid-pilled elephant in the MAGA China shop" and Savannah Time that targets conservatives with LGBTQ+ issues and gender reassignment content, according to Microsoft.

The report added that Microsoft has found evidence that groups connected to Iran's government are using AI-enabled services to plagiarize content from U.S. publications.

Microsoft said these efforts seek to stoke discord, to carry out influence campaigns and stir controversy in battleground states while gathering intelligence on U.S. politics, and incite chaos and undermine authorities while sowing doubt about election integrity.

Another Iranian group, according to Microsoft, has been building the groundwork for influence operations targeting the United States since March "that are even more extreme, including intimidation or inciting violence against political figures or groups."

Microsoft's report said a group connected with Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps sent out phishing emails in June to "a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign from the compromised email account of a former senior advisor."

The email had a link that would direct traffic through a domain controlled by the group before routing to the website of the provided link.

"Within days of this activity, the same group unsuccessfully attempted to log into an account belonging to a former presidential candidate," Microsoft said. "We've since notified those targeted."

Microsoft said it is sharing the intelligence on these activities so American voters, candidates, political parties, government institutions and others can be aware of the influence campaigns targeting U.S. elections and the political system.

Prior to the 2020 election, Microsoft's threat assessment team issued similar warnings about "an Iran-based cybercrime faction" it believed was working to interfere in the presidential election.

At that time targeted accounts were associated with a U.S. presidential campaign, journalists covering global politics and prominent Iranians living outside Iran.

In April a Microsoft report said artificial intelligence threats from China and North Korea were aimed at influencing U.S., South Korean and Indiana elections.

Among the Chinese malign efforts to influence U.S. elections, according to Microsoft, were AI deep fake videos, audio and false "news reports" that had AI-generated phony news anchors.

Microsoft's assessment of those efforts was that they were used to amplify controversial issues while posting false stories, but the impact in altering voter opinions was low.

At the same time, Microsoft warned China's "increasing experimentation in augmenting memes, videos, and audio will continue-and may prove effective down the line."