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General Angus Campbell, Australia’s Chief of Defence Force, has used a speech to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) to flag the dangers Western democracies face from the use of artificial intelligence (AI) as a disinformation tool.
In particular, General Campbell pointed out Russia as a key driver of disinformation as a “weapon of statecraft”.
“Today, we are more connected and have access to more information than any other time in history – and also more disinformation,” General Campbell said on Thursday (14 September) to an ASPI conference audience, as reported by The Guardian.
“We rightly pride ourselves on being an open, diverse and liberal society – in other words, exposed.
“Healthy and functioning societies such as ours depend upon a well-informed and engaged citizenry. Unfortunately, it is often said, we are increasingly living in a post-truth world where perceptions and emotions often trump facts.”
General Campbell observed that Russia’s Cold War disinformation campaigns were aimed at the US and its allies at the time and that that same “inheritance” is being used now as a weapon to influence the West. Campbell cited the Brexit referendum and the 2016 US election as key examples of Russian influence campaigns.
“While the overarching intent of the Soviet and Russian disinformation campaigns were the same, what sets them apart is the Russian Federation’s use of novel technologies to enhance the scale, speed and spread of their efforts.
“By feeding and amplifying untruths and fake news on social media via the use of bots, troll farms and fake online personas, the Russians attacked American and British democracy, highlighting distrust, sowing discord and undermining faith in key institutions,” General Campbell said.
Talking about the rise of AI-generated deepfakes, General Campbell warned that there could “come a time when it is impossible for the average person to distinguish fact from fiction”.
“This tech future may accelerate truth decay, greatly challenging the quality of what we call public ‘common sense’, seriously damaging public confidence in elected officials and undermining the trust that binds us,” he said.
General Campbell also called out China as a country more than willing to use disinformation campaigns as “the perfect foundation from which others may win without fighting”.
“There is no denying that the most developed doctrinal approaches that seek to ‘win without fighting’ are observed in non-western institutions, particularly the People’s Liberation Army and their Three Warfares strategy, encompassing psychological operations, media operations and legal operations.”
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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