China, Russia ‘very likely’ to use AI to try and disrupt next election: CSE

A new report says cybercriminals linked to China, Russia and Iran are using generative AI tools like deepfakes to spread disinformation and target elections around the world.

China, Russia and Iran will “very likely” use artificial intelligence to try and disrupt Canada’s next federal election, a new assessment from the Communications Security Establishment Canada says, but are unlikely to undermine the overall integrity of the vote.

The annual report on cyber threats to Canadian democracy, released Thursday, said cybercriminals linked to those countries will most likely use generative AI tools and methods like deepfakes to spread disinformation “designed to sow division among Canadians and push narratives conducive to the interests of foreign states.”

Canadian politicians and political parties will likely be targeted with phishing scams and hack-and-leak operations to further sow discord, the report said.

“We assess that the PRC, Russia, and Iran will very likely use AI-enabled tools to attempt to interfere with Canada’s democratic process before and during the 2025 election,” the report from the CSE and its Canadian Centre for Cyber Security says, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.

“However, we assess it very unlikely that hostile actors will carry out a destructive cyber attack against election infrastructure, such as attempting to paralyze telecommunications systems on election day, outside of imminent or direct armed conflict.”

The report also underscores the “heightened risk” Canadian public figures, particularly women and LGBTQ2+ people, face from deepfake pornography. Such content can deter people from running for political office, and will continue to grow unabated without proper regulations, it warns.

“Further, we assess it likely that, on at least one occasion, that content was seeded to deliberately sabotage the campaign of a candidate running for office,” the report says.

The final report from the federal public inquiry into foreign interference released last month said disinformation represents the greatest threat to Canadian democracy. It said the rise of artificial intelligence was behind that assessment.