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Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken warned on Monday that a malicious \u201cflood\u201d of disinformation was threatening the world\u2019s democracies, fueled in part by the swift rise of artificial intelligence, which he says sows \u201csuspicion, cynicism and instability\u201d around the globe.<\/p>\n
Mr. Blinken spoke in Seoul at the Summit for Democracy<\/a>, a global gathering organized by the Biden administration, which has made countering the authoritarian models of nations like Russia and China a top priority.<\/p>\n Mr. Blinken, who as a young man worked briefly as a journalist, said that changes to the international flow of information may be \u201cthe most profound\u201d that he has experienced in his career, and that anti-democratic forces were exploiting those changes.<\/p>\n \u201cOur competitors and adversaries are using disinformation to exploit fissures within our democracies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He noted that countries totaling nearly half of the world\u2019s population, including India<\/a>, will hold elections this year under the threat of manipulated information. He did not mention the United States\u2019 presidential election in November, which many analysts say could be influenced by foreign-directed information campaigns like the one Russia waged in 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n The U.S. promotes \u201cdigital and media literacy\u201d programs abroad to help news consumers judge the reliability of content, Mr. Blinken said. But he cautioned that American adversaries were clever about laundering their propaganda and disinformation. China, for instance, has purchased cable television providers in Africa and then excluded international news channels from subscription packages, he said.<\/p>\n And increasingly powerful generative A.I. programs, Mr. Blinken said, can \u201cfool even the most sophisticated news consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n The State Department has urged social media platforms to take more action, including by clearly labeling A.I.-generated content. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced such a plan<\/a> last month for content posted on Facebook and Instagram.<\/p>\n But experts at the conference said the challenge was enormous. Speaking on the subject later in the day, Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister of Britain, cited the example of an A.I.-generated image of Pope Francis<\/a> in a puffer jacket that drew wide attention last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Dowden said that even though he understood that the image was fake, he retains a mental association between the pope and puffer jackets. Such images \u201cinfluence your perceptions\u201d subconsciously, he said.<\/p>\n Mr. Blinken spoke days after a new report<\/a> commissioned by the State Department and released last week warned that artificial intelligence presents the world with \u201ccatastrophic risks.\u201d The report said that an A.I. system \u201ccapable of superhuman persuasion\u201d could undermine the democratic process.<\/p>\n It also cited an unnamed prominent A.I. researcher\u2019s concern that \u201cthe model\u2019s potential persuasive capabilities could \u2018break democracy\u2019 if they were ever leveraged in areas such as election interference or voter manipulation.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Blinken discussed the threat of commercial spyware, which he said several governments had used to monitor and intimidate journalists and political activists. He said that six countries \u2014 Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Poland and South Korea \u2014 were joining a U.S.-led coalition<\/a> to ensure that commercial spyware \u201cis deployed consistent with universal human rights and basic freedoms.\u201d<\/p>\n President Biden issued an executive order<\/a> a year ago barring the U.S. government from using commercial spyware, though not similar tools built by U.S. intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This week\u2019s Summit for Democracy is the third installment of a forum started in 2021 by Mr. Biden, who said during his State of the Union<\/a> address this month that \u201cfreedom and democracy are under attack both at home and overseas.\u201d The meetings are intended to help other nations promote best civil society practices and defend against political sabotage.<\/p>\n Mr. Blinken\u2019s visit to Seoul occurred as North Korea conducted its latest test launch of several short-range ballistic missiles. The launches came days after joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that North Korea denounced as provocative.<\/p>\n Mr. Blinken did not mention the launches in his public remarks, although the State Department condemned them.<\/p>\n Matthew Miller, a department spokesman, also said in a statement that Mr. Blinken and the South Korean foreign minister, Cho Tae-yul, discussed \u201cPyongyang\u2019s military support for Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine\u201d and North Korea\u2019s \u201cincreasingly aggressive rhetoric and activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n