U.S. sanctions Russian group for AI-generated election disinformation

The United States has imposed sanctions on Russian and Iranian organizations that attempted to interfere in the 2024 presidential election. The Treasury said Tuesday that the groups had sought to “promote socio-political tensions” and influence voters.

One group, the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise, is linked to Russia’s main intelligence service (GRU) and has built servers hosting its own AI tools “to avoid foreign web hosting services blocking its activities.” The organization then used these tools to “rapidly generate disinformation” that was spread across dozens of fake online news outlets, while also maintaining AI servers at a U.S.-based company and operating a network of “at least 100 websites” used in the U.S. We provided the funds to do it. That campaign.

Additionally, the Russian organization manipulated the video to “generate unfounded accusations against the 2024 vice presidential candidate.” Last October, the United States accused Russia of producing a video defaming Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, Tim Waltz.

The Treasury Department also sanctioned the Cognitive Design Production Center, a subsidiary of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), for planning to interfere with elections “since at least 2023.” In the weeks leading up to the election, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted an Iranian national on charges of conducting cyberattacks against President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign, and OpenAI reported banning ChatGPT accounts linked to Iranian influence operations.

“The Iranian and Russian governments targeted our election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns,” Bradley Smith, Acting Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a press release. said.