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Iran is secretly harnessing generative AI to publish news articles with the goal of influencing US voters, according to Microsoft.
In a report published Thursday, Microsoft alleges that Iranian state-sponsored groups are once again trying to meddle in a US election. They did the same during the 2020 race, but this time, Microsoft suspects the Iranians are creating fake news sites to try to sway US voters and relying on generative AI to make the articles sound authentic.
“One of the sites, called Nio Thinker, caters to left-leaning audiences and insults former president Donald Trump, calling him an ‘opioid-pilled elephant in the MAGA china shop’ and a ‘raving mad litigiosaur,’” Microsoft said. “Another, called Savannah Time, claims to be a ‘trusted source for conservative news in the vibrant city of Savannah’ and focuses on topics including LGBTQ+ issues and gender reassignment."
The two sites are still online and look professionally made. But the contact pages for both are empty. In addition, the articles published on both domains simply credit “Savannah Time Staff” or “Nio Thinker Staff,” rather than identified journalists.
Microsoft suspects the Iranian group behind the sites, “Storm-2035,” may try to circulate articles from the publications on social media. The company adds the sites seem to be using generative AI to plagiarize and re-write articles taken from real US publications.
“Examination of web page source code and indicators in the articles themselves suggest the sites’ operators are likely using SEO [search-engine optimization] plugins and other generative AI-based tools to create article titles, keywords, and to automatically rephrase stolen content in a way that drives search engine traffic to their sites while obfuscating the content’s original source,” the company wrote in the report.
Microsoft spotted another Iranian group trying to impersonate activist groups, likely “to stoke chaos, undermine trust in authorities, and sow doubt about election integrity,” it said. At the same time, the company recently uncovered hackers allegedly from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sending a phishing email to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.
“The email contained a link that would direct traffic through a domain controlled by the group before routing to the website of the provided link,” Microsoft said. “Within days of this activity, the same group unsuccessfully attempted to log into an account belonging to a former presidential candidate. We’ve since notified those targeted.”
Microsoft’s report also documents how suspected Russian and Chinese groups are meddling in the US election by spreading propaganda on social media. “We share intelligence like this so voters, government institutions, candidates, parties, and others can be aware of influence campaigns and protect themselves from threats,” the company added.
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