In a report published today by Microsoft Corp.’s Threat Analysis Center, analysts warned that Chinese operatives may now be using images created by artificial intelligence to provoke division inside the U.S. in the run-up to the 2024 U.S. election.

The report’s focus was on possible threats from all of East Asia, but China is the country to watch out for in the realm of disinformation threats. The analysts said that the Chinese Communist Party now has “a new capability to automatically generate images it can use for influence operations” that mimic U.S. voters from left to right to create controversy in regard to racial, economic and ideological matters.

Although such campaigns may not have gained much traction in the past, the analysts said that by using diffusion-powered image generators, the images being used are far more compelling than stock images or digital drawings used in the past. These visuals, said the report, have been employed to stoke division where many of the hot-button issues are involved, including gun violence and the Black Lives Matter Movement. They also said that the images were being used to denigrate political figures.

“We report on digital threats we detect – including the use of AI – to inform policymakers, security practitioners, and the public about any threats, current or emerging, that new technologies may pose to information integrity and democracy,” said Microsoft.

The report also talks about China’s efforts to spread propaganda in an effort to put China in a good light around the world. “The Chinese government is investing resources in messaging to audiences in more languages, on more platforms, while evolving its techniques,” said the report, noting that the country employs hundreds of people posing as influencers to spread the information. Just last week, Meta Platforms Inc. disrupted a Chinese disinformation campaign that it called the “largest known cross-platform covert influence operation in the world.”

Microsoft said these campaigns are much more successful than similar propaganda campaigns of the past. The images might be created by assets of the Chinese government, but the promulgation of the images and text has taken some of the propaganda viral. It’s believed such content has reached 103 million people in as many as 40 languages.

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