Postcards from the Exponential Age: Day 2

Hi there! Well, I’ve finally made it home. Grand Cayman > Miami > Paris > Marrakech > Casablanca > [No Dubai] > Lisbon > New Jersey > NYC > Grand Cayman in 9 days... do not recommend.

Time for another postcard from the Exponential Age (and the results of yesterday’s poll)

Microsoft warns: get ready for AI-fuelled election chaos

A new report from Microsoft says China is using state-backed cyber groups to target 2024’s high-profile elections, including those in India, South Korea, and the U.S.

Published by Microsoft Threat Intelligence, the report warned that Beijing-sponsored social media actors are posing as genuine U.S. voters to post divisive political content.

Meanwhile, a group known as Storm-1376 is working to seed conspiracy theories around current events. In the wake of a November train derailment in Kentucky, for example, Storm-1376 accounts spread anti-U.S. conspiracy theories and asked whether the U.S. government may have intentionally caused the incident.

But the real exponential shift here? Microsoft’s threat team says state-backed groups are now making use of AI to supercharge their disinformation campaigns. Right now, human-made content still predominates. But that, says the report, could change fast.

Just one more signal, then, of a phenomenon we have discussed. Rapid advances in generative AI have democratized the creation of sophisticated deepfake content. And now we’re about to watch the first U.S. presidential election cycle fought in the age of AI.

Think super-convincing deepfake videos of Biden and Trump. A wave of disinformation on WhatsApp. And a whole lot of chaos on X.

We’re going to need new answers, and fast. Welcome to politics in the Exponential Age…

Poll Results

Yesterday’s poll results are up…!

And today’s poll question:

Can you tell real video from a deepfake

Take the Exponential Age daily poll here