The productive artificial intelligence is being used by Russia as a tool to reinforce disinformation campaigns against it Ukrainianaccording to a senior Ukrainian official.
“This year we see a continued density of cyberattacks (by Russia), but more emphasis is placed on disinformation,” Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Anton Demokhin told Reuters.
“Now that productive artificial intelligence has arrived, this it allows misinformation narratives to proliferate and distribute to a new, more complex level.”
These new disinformation campaigns are difficult to detect, he said, with false activity widespread on social media platforms to boost their credibility.
Ukrainian officials told Reuters in August that many Ukrainians had been targeted by online disinformation by Russia’s FSB security service and military intelligence.
Moscow accuses sophisticated information warfare
In response, Moscow accused Ukraine and the West of waging a sophisticated information war against Russia.
On Monday, U.S. intelligence officials said Russia was among countries using artificial intelligence tools to try to influence U.S. voters ahead of November’s presidential election.
Demokhin, speaking on the sidelines of Singapore International Cyber Week, said Ukraine has identified Russian disinformation campaigns in countries around the world and said states must work together to manage disinformation.
He told Reuters that Ukraine itself uses artificial intelligence to monitor disinformation campaigns, but declined to comment on whether it is conducting its own cyberattacks.
OpenAI, a US research organization, said in May it had identified two covert Russian influence operations that used its tools to defend Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on social media platforms such as Telegram and X, but said their reach was limited. .
More than three-quarters of Ukrainians get their news on social media, according to a study commissioned by USAid in 2023.
Other Russian cyberattacks, Demokhin said, have increasingly targeted Ukraine’s supply chains and critical infrastructure, infiltrating companies that supply essential components such as sensors or electricity meters.
Reuters, citing sources, reported in June that the International Criminal Court (ICC) was investigating alleged Russian cyberattacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure as war crimes.
Demokhin said Ukraine has been working closely with the ICC on the investigation and has made some recent progress.
Sources: AMPE, Reuters