Chinese hackers might attempt to target Lok Sabha polls with AI content, warns Microsoft

China is reportedly planning to use artificial intelligence (AI) generated content to interfere in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in India, as well as in other countries like the United States and South Korea, according to a recent report by Microsoft.

The tech giant revealed that China intends to create and circulate AI-based content on social media platforms to support its political stances in these elections. Although the potential impact of such content on election results is currently considered low, Microsoft underscored China's ongoing experiments to improve memes, videos, and audio, which may become increasingly effective in the future.

The report, titled 'Same targets, new playbooks: East Asia threat actors employ unique methods', was published by the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC). The report also revealed that China had previously attempted an AI-based disinformation campaign during the Taiwan presidential election in January, marking the first known instance of a state-backed entity using AI-generated content to influence a foreign election.

Microsoft warned that China's targets could extend beyond Taiwan this year, with increased sophisticated influence tactics from China and North Korea noted since June 2023. The report identified three main areas targeted by Chinese cyber actors in the past seven months, including the South Pacific Islands, regional adversaries in the South China Sea region, and the US defense industrial base.

Microsoft also pointed out that Chinese threat actors continued to focus on entities associated with China's economic and military interests in the South China Sea region, compromising government and telecommunications entities in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

A Chinese cyber actor named Flax Typhoon was found to be targeting entities involved in US-Philippines military exercises and later entities in the Philippines, Hong Kong, India, and the United States in early fall and winter of 2023.

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