John Kirby: Russians Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Interfere in U.S. Elections; ‘Much More Sophisticated’ than What We’ve Seen in Past

HUEY-BURNS: “And I want to quickly move over to another regional conflict, as it’s been called. The administration is accusing Russia of engaging in interference, campaign interference leading up to the 2024 presidential election. What exactly does this interference look like from what you can tell, and how does it compare to previous election years? And is there a specific campaign that has been the target?”

KIRBY: “It’s much more sophisticated than what we’ve seen out of the Russians in the recent past, certainly than what we saw in 2016. Yes, they’re using social media, but they’re much more pervasive at it, creating false persona, using artificial intelligence to help drive content and distribute content, and they’re much more resourced and organized. Using RT, what was formerly just a propaganda organ for the Kremlin, now has turned into a full covert influence activity with full funding to do this kind of work by funneling resources and organizing editorial content in actual media outlets. In one case, a media company here in the United States. So, it’s a — it’s a bigger effort. It’s certainly more sophisticated and better resourced. Look, on the what — what their preferred candidate is, I’m just going to go so far as to say what the Attorney General said today. We know they’re taking these activities to promulgate Russian propaganda, to try to push their policies and items that are of interest to them, to undermine confidence in Ukraine and what Ukraine is trying to do to defend itself, and to undermine our own democracy. That’s what we’re seeing and that’s what we spoke to today.”

HUEY-BURNS: “Yeah, the details in that report were very startling, to say the least. John Kirby, thank you very much for your time. We’ll talk to you soon.”

KIRBY: “Thank you so much.”