Chinese researchers are exploring ways to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT to manipulate global audiences, possibly including their perceptions of Taiwan, a RAND Corp study found.
The US-based think tank published the report The Rise of Generative AI and the Coming Era of Social Media Manipulation 3.0 on Thursday last week discussing potential threats to US national security posed by actors misusing generative AI technologies, with a focus on China.
Although no evidence has shown that Beijing is using AI to generate and publish content on social media, it is the consensus among independent researchers and a number of governments that the Chinese government is conducting social media manipulation, the report said.
Photo: Reuters
“AI offers the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] the potential to fulfill longstanding desires to shape the global conversation about itself and China more broadly,” the report said.
It cited studies that pointed to Beijing’s attempt to interfere in Taiwan’s 2018 presidential election through social media manipulation.
New tactics emerged afterward, including using content farms to produce numerous false or misleading content, buying established Taiwanese social media accounts and allegedly paying Taiwanese influencers to spread pro-Beijing narratives, it said.
These efforts might not have a significant influence on election results, but seem to be “worsening Taiwanese political and social polarization and widening perceived generational divides,” it said.
Utilizing AI might further improve the authenticity of China-produced content, as well as reduce the money and the labor required to produce it, meaning it could reach further and wider, the report said.
With China’s technology ecosystem and strong government support, at least 30 Chinese companies, universities and research institutions were developing generative AI models as of April, it said.
By growing its technical capability in developing large language models, on which OpenAI’s ChatGPT is based, trained mainly on Chinese-language data, the Chinese government might acquire sufficient capability to conduct social media manipulation on both domestic and foreign scales, the report said.
Beijing’s efforts to shape foreign public opinion can be found on more than social media platforms, they also include print, radio and television, it said, adding that “using generative AI for such content at scale would be a natural progression of CCP efforts.”
Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga, one of the authors of the report, told Defense One on Thursday last week that “logically the next target for China would be the Taiwanese [2024 presidential] election” in terms of manipulating public opinion.
The Web site said that social media platforms “aren’t well positioned to guard against” China’s efforts to conduct large-scale manipulation using generative AI.
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS