The United States Treasury has enforced fresh sanctions on Iranian and Russian organizations over charges of employing artificial intelligence to spread misleading information in a bid to sway the 2024 US presidential election.
The embargos have been mandated on a subsidiary of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a Russia-linked military intelligence affiliate, aimed at suppressing their attempts to ignite socio-political unrest and interfere with the 2024 US election.
Bradley Smith, Treasury’s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, reported, “The governments of Iran and Russia have aimed election processes and institutions and seek to divide the American people through misinformation campaigns,” and further added, “The United States will remain observant against adversaries who would threaten our democracy.”
The Treasury imposed sanctions on the Center for Geopolitical Expertise (CGE), a Moscow-based group aided by Aleksandr Dugin. CGE had earlier been sanctioned in 2015.
It alleged that the group collaborated with Russia’s military intelligence service, which conducts vandalism, political interference, and cyberwarfare operations against the West.
The Treasury reported that the intelligence service both guided and financially aided the center to influence the 2024 presidential election. Treasury reported that, with that support, the center managed a network of “at least 100 websites” for its “false information operations,” through which it spread misleading information.
The Treasury statement added, “CGE and its officials used generative AI tools to quickly create false information that would be spread across a massive network of websites developed to replicate legitimate news outlets to create misleading authentication between the stories, as well as to distort their Russian origin.”
The sanctions also aimed at the Cognitive Design Production Center, a subsidiary of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, over its “influence operations.”
