How extremists use generative artificial intelligence for propaganda
Extremist groups have begun experimenting with generative artificial intelligence to create propaganda. Experts fear that this will undermine efforts to keep such content off the Internet. This was stated by Tech Against Terrorism, WIRED reports.
“Our biggest concern is that if terrorists start using gen AI to manipulate imagery at scale, this could well destroy hash-sharing as a solution,” Adam Hadley, the executive director of Tech Against Terrorism, tells WIRED. “This is a massive risk.”
For years, Big Tech platforms have been working on creating databases of violent extremist content to help in the rapid and automatic removal of such content on the Internet.
But now Adam Hadley says his colleagues are discovering about 5,000 examples of AI-generated content every week, including images shared in the past weeks by groups affiliated with Hezbollah and Hamas.
However, Tech Against Terrorism is not only worried about images created with the help of AI. The initiative has published a report that outlines other ways in which generative AI tools can be used by extremist groups.
Among them is the use of auto-translation tools that can quickly translate propaganda into different languages.
However, Adam Hadley believes that AI also provides an opportunity to stay ahead of extremist groups and prevent what they want to use the technology for.
In this regard, he announced cooperation with Microsoft to find opportunities to create a system for detecting generative AI and counteract the threat of its use to create terrorist content.