Hello Readers, over the last four weeks, we have explored the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in real-world scenarios where automation can provide positive support to those in need and economy as a whole. However, AI can also be misused when in the hands of ill-intentioned people engaged in the global power-play. One of its manifestations is the increased weaponization of AI for the purposes of destabilizing the power balance. This presents a complex challenge for national governments as well as a growing threat to the global security of humanity. It is therefore in this context that this week’s blog explores the positive and negative usage of Artificial Intelligence. Disinformation is a potent tool of geopolitical power competition and domestic political warfare (Sedova et al., 2021). The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2022) defines propaganda as “ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause”. The purpose of disinformation is to disorder public opinion’s impulses, emotions and habits, to gain authority over people (Eudaimonia, 2015). Propaganda is divided into three categories of Black, Grey and White Propaganda. While Black Propaganda represents deceit and trickery, Grey Propaganda includes half-truths and half-lies, and White Propaganda consists of truthful information (Hamilton, 2018). Today, propaganda campaigns are used to spread disinformation using software applications and networks of compromised computers to automate the spread of disinformation to cause public disarray (François, 2021). According to National Democratic Institute (2017) twenty-six bot accounts can influence up to three million other accounts. CBS News (2022) reports there is evidence to suggest that a group of Russian hackers has already or is planning to use cyberwarfare on Ukraine to disrupt important computer systems. Eversden (2021) argues that Russia is progressing faster than the U.S. technologically and is enhancing their AI to gain an information advantage in cyber intelligence. Additionally, in this information war, Black Propaganda has become Russia’s concerted effort to spread disinformation among not only Russian soldiers, resulting in armed forces feeling uncertain and confused and “duped into war” (Harding, 2022) but also across the internet and foreign and domestic media. This leads to soldiers following the orders they are given without question and inferring belief that they are “liberating” the country when, in fact, causing severe and irreparable damage, destruction, and trauma to a country’s population (Pelletier, 2022). As a result of politically divisive claims and disinformation becoming automated and weaponized through bots on social media platforms like Twitter, there is a need for a monitoring solution that would actively oversee and screen the disinformation to be put in place. In this context, Artificial Intelligence could be deployed to detect disinformation (National Democratic Institute, 2017). Furthermore, Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms could be used as a detective tool to translate, classify, and extract content that is recognized as propaganda (Oshikawa, Qian and Wang, 2018). This branch of AI can counteract the anonymity of Black Propaganda and detain “deepfakes” from impersonating individuals (PBS NewsHour, 2019) and constitutes an important AI component in the global war against disinformation. Thank you for reading this blog post. It has been an exciting journey for our team. We hope you have enjoyed it too. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated. Please comment down below and follow us on our social medias where we provide regular updates on the topic of Artificial Intelligence. REFERENCES CBS News (2022) Ukraine reports cyberattacks amid fears Russia could use digital tactics. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc5mxd4O1SI&t=2s [Accessed 27 March 2022]. Eudaimonia (2015) How to Control What People Do | Propaganda - EDWARD BERNAYS | Animated Book Summary. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q-3qwEDyPM [Accessed 27 March 2022]. Eversden, A. (2021) ‘A warning to DoD: Russia advances quicker than expected on AI, battlefield tech’, C4ISRNet, 24 May. Available at: https://www.c4isrnet.com/artificial-intelligence/2021/05/24/a-warning-to-dod-russia-advances-quicker-than-expected-on-ai-battlefield-tech/ [Accessed 27 March 2022]. François, C. (2021) Exposing Government Botnets That Spread Propaganda. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjhYx1fXKvg [Accessed 27 March 2022]. Hamilton, M. (2018) ‘Uses of Propaganda’, Owlcation, 14 September. Available at: https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/Uses-of-Propaganda [Accessed 27 March 2022]. Harding, L. (2022) Demoralised Russian soldiers tell of anger at being ‘duped’ into war. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/04/russian-soldiers-ukraine-anger-duped-into-war [Accessed 27 March 2022]. Merriam-Webster (2022) Definition of propaganda. Available at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propaganda [Accessed 27 March 2022]. National Democratic Institute (2017) Disinformation vs. Democracy: Fighting for Facts. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf1nW6hJ4bY [Accessed 27 March 2022]. Oshikawa, R., Qian, J., and Wang, W.Y. (2018) ‘A Survey on Natural Language Processing for Fake News Detection’, Computer Science > Computation and Language, arxiv. doi: 10.48550/arXiv.1811.00770. PBS NewsHour (2019) Why ‘deepfake’ videos are becoming more difficult to detect. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OIFVm0dPLw&t=2s [Accessed 27 March 2022]. Pelletier, J. (2022) ‘Intelligence, information warfare, cyber warfare, electronic warfare – what they are and how Russia is using them in Ukraine’, The Conversation, 1 March. Available at: https://theconversation.com/intelligence-information-warfare-cyber-warfare-electronic-warfare-what-they-are-and-how-russia-is-using-them-in-ukraine-177899 [Accessed 27 March 2022]. Sedova, K., McNeill, C., Johnson, A., Joshi, A., and Wulkan, I. (2021) ‘AI and the Future of Disinformation Campaigns’, Analysis, CSET. doi: doi.org/10.51593/2021CA005.
1 Comment
Kenneth
4/4/2022 09:49:41 am
Excellent info!!
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