00:00A research firm in Taiwan has found leaked documents show how China is using advanced
00:06AI systems to create and spread misleading or manipulative information online.
00:12Double Think Lab says the leaked files from Chinese data firm Goluxy show it built an
00:18AI system that can track political trends, pick targets for manipulation and spread content
00:24using fake accounts.
00:25The plan focused on Taiwan, with data on politicians, religious groups and civil organizations.
00:32The files also show there are similar programs for the US and Hong Kong.
00:38To learn more about the threats posed by Chinese AI-generated information, our reporter Alan
00:44Liu spoke with Jasper Hewitt, a digital intelligence analyst with Double Think Lab.
00:50Your analysis of the Goluxy papers showed that the company was involved in foreign information
00:55manipulation and interference.
00:57Can you walk us through your key findings from the documents and what they reveal about the
01:02company's ties to the Chinese government?
01:04So I think the main takeaway from the documents is that they are developing a system which
01:11is a completely automated AI-powered system to conduct influence operations.
01:16It does basically four things, so it detects and understands the latest political narratives.
01:21It then determines targets for their influence operations, so it's able to find, for example,
01:27key opinion leaders or people that are very politically active on social media.
01:32And then it can generate content about these people to, for example, criticize them, and then
01:38it can automatically deliver that content through an army of inauthentic accounts.
01:42As for, as for its connection to the government, so obviously Goluxy was founded by the Chinese
01:49Academy of Sciences, specifically the ICT department, which is state-owned. It also has ongoing projects
01:56with the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Science and Technology Department of the Central
02:01Military Commission. So this, this company is very much deeply embedded into the whole Chinese digital
02:08intelligence community. The documents show that Goluxy targets not just Taiwan, but also the US,
02:15Hong Kong, and even built-in road countries. In your view, what are some of the most seriously
02:21affected targets and why? I personally think after looking at the documents that Taiwan is obviously
02:26the biggest, uh, the biggest, uh, the biggest target here, uh, obviously because Taiwan has always been
02:32the number one target for, uh, for the PRC, but also in these documents, like some of the stuff that
02:37you see about, uh, the United States or about these belt and road, uh, countries, it's more,
02:43it, it, it more, it's more about data scraping capabilities, uh, kind of like showing people what they,
02:49what they would be able to do in these countries. Uh, whereas in, uh, for Taiwan, uh, it was a
02:55lot
02:55more detailed. So we also saw these, um, AI generated election observation reports from the previous,
03:02uh, presidential election. So they would have these weekly reports that would kind of like, uh,
03:07lay out what was going on from that. I kind of deduced that Taiwan would be the number one target
03:12here.
03:13Based on your research, what are some of the most effective ways that Taiwan and other countries can
03:18use to better counter Chinese information manipulation, especially when AI makes it even
03:24more powerful? I think the most useful thing that governments can do is to create, uh, government
03:31agencies that can track or monitor influence operations, uh, in general, not just Chinese ones,
03:37but also, uh, from, from other countries, uh, to just kind of have a sense, uh, of what's going on
03:43and what prominent operations are currently happening. And then those government agencies
03:47can work together with the big tech platforms, uh, to solve this issue because, um, as these things
03:54are becoming more difficult to detect, um, we really rely more on the platforms to spot these things,
04:00right? So I think we need dedicated government, uh, departments or, or, or agencies, uh,
04:06to really, yeah, come, come to these platforms and be like, okay, we think this is going on.
04:11Uh, you have to do something about it or show us what you can find about this cluster of accounts.
04:17I think that would be the best way forward.
04:20That was Jasper Hewitt, an analyst with Double Think Lab and one of the report's co-authors.
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