AI and Disinformation: State-Aligned Information Operations and the Distortion of the Public Sphere

Abstract

The past few years have seen exponential increases in the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning alongside the use of increasingly sophisticated information operations to manipulate the public sphere. Weaponized and gendered disinformation, influence campaigns, and online harassment have compounded existing press freedom and human rights challenges awhile creating new ones.

State-sponsored disinformation campaigns are increasingly common in political systems of all types. These campaigns leverage the design of social media platforms and the AI systems that power them to pursue a strategy of undermining, drowning out, and delegitimizing real news through coordinated efforts to silence critics and manipulate public opinion. They often include online harassment targeted at those reporting on information operations or engaged in factchecking those in power. From loosely coordinated to tightly choreographed campaigns, information operations leverage state and/or party resources to manipulate public opinion by leveraging the AI systems that govern the platform-mediated public sphere and/or propel harassment campaigns. This paper analyses the dynamics of state-aligned disinformation campaigns and the role that AI plays in this context. It specifically examines coordinated campaigns deployed against journalists and media outlets, their gendered dimension, and how they leverage and manipulate AI systems to contort the public sphere.

Keywords: AI, disinformation, journalism, media, artificial intelligence, information operations, propaganda, gendered disinformation, technology