With the advancement in generative A.I., authoritarians received a great gift – ChatGPT, a system designed with human-like features for creating compositions such as essays, poetry, and code. This unexpected development has highlighted A.I.’s potential to generate volume content promptly.
Despite leading Western voices raising concerns about the possible risks associated with advanced generative A.I. tools, their potential danger is most concerningly reflected when put in the hands of those ruling authoritarian regimes and autocracies.
ChatGPT, an A.I. tool with massive potential that must face stricter development regulations due to its ability to shape modern authoritarianism, is increasingly utilized by governments and companies. Norms must be installed before the opportunity fades to preserve world safety.
So far, when discussing the potential harms of generative A.I. and autocrats, the focus has mostly been on how they could amplify Chinese and Russian propaganda targeting U.S. citizens.
ChatGPT has already displayed the capability of A.I.’s capacity to establish automated propagation of deceptive foreign cover-ups for both Chinese and Russian languages solely with a single button press.
Generative A.I. has the potential to revolutionize authoritarian influence operations in terms of speed, scale, and believability; this power is only further amplified through the utilization of tailored advertising and other technological developments to promote precision propaganda.
However, despite the rugged landscape created by Government-funded Propaganda Technologies (GPTs), the efforts made by the Chinese and Russian governments to spread disinformation to open societies are relatively limited compared to how much propaganda they force to feed their citizens.
Whereas robust communities of technologists devoted to fighting online deception operate in democratic societies, autocrats avail of the unlimited capacities afforded by their governments to maximize propaganda’s effect.
While 2019 saw Chinese President Xi Jinping orders his party-state to employ Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) to “comprehensively increase” their capacity to direct public sentiment in China, the grim reality of how Beijing utilizes future technologies has been put out in plain sight.
In the aftermath of his incursion into Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin amplified the use of Artificial Intelligence in promoting propaganda. One striking example was a depiction created by pulling strings of the recently-elected Ukrainian heads of state urging citizens to acknowledge defeat.
Multibillion-dollar budgets heavily support digital propaganda tools from Russian and Chinese agencies that seek to control how people think. An entire ecosystem is created to stay competitive in this area as added efforts are continuously made to keep people in check.
Russia and China have the potential to be foundational for Artificial Intelligence to have a major effect on the employment of brainwashing methods; Ironically, this could engender more international catastrophes, a plethora of human rights violations, and strengthen established despotism.
The dissemination of China’s techno-authoritarianism could lead to many dictators worldwide taking advantage; because of its refinement and export, this “propaganda revolution” will surely be capitalized on.
The development of generative A.I. has largely been pioneered by countries in the United States and its allies, granting open societies extra time to detect, understand and minimize any future harms that authoritarian states might impose with it. This potentially is invaluable as the technology matures.
If the free world fails to protect its advantage of leading in pioneer technologies, it will result in authoritarians acquiring them too easily.
Keeping cutting-edge A.I. models from autocrats is an arduous task, as generative A.I. models are prone to easy theft. Technically speaking, this makes it quite difficult to protect them effectively.
Once developed, models can require an immense amount of resources to build. However, this does not price out their usability – since they can be copied and cheaply adapted with minimal cost. This is especially unfortunate due to China’s rampant tech infringement from U.S. businesses.
Generative A.I., also known as deep learning, is a rapidly advancing field that has the potential to revolutionize many aspects of our lives, from healthcare to entertainment. However, there are concerns that this technology could also be used for more nefarious purposes, such as brainwashing and propaganda.
Generative A.I. uses algorithms to learn patterns in large datasets, allowing it to generate new content similar in style to the input data. This technology has already been used to create convincing deepfake videos, which can be used to spread misinformation or manipulate public opinion.
Source: thehill
