Bill Marcellino and Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga on Generative AI and its implications for social media, national security, and public policy.
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Bill Marcellino is a senior behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation, and Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga, policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. They are the principal researchers behind the new report “The Rise of Generative AI and the Coming Era of Social Media Manipulation 3.0”. This episode highlights the employment of AI and machine learning by nation-state actors to skew public opinions and achieve their objectives. Key technologies like generative AI, natural language processing, and image generation used in social media manipulation are explored. We discuss tactics such as astroturfing, meant to create an illusion of grassroots support, the creation of synthetic media, including real-time speech synthesis, and the policy implications of these technologies.
Interview highlights – key sections from the video version:
- Background on the report: target audience, data sources, research methodology
- Standard attack pipeline or workflow, and a taxonomy of common threats
- Astroturfing and the CCP
- Gathering signals from within China
- Recent astroturfing examples
- Understanding China’s Strategic Motivations in Digital Interference
- Generative AI: some current limitations
- Social Media’s Role in Echo Chambers and Behavioral Impact
- Taiwan Elections and Generative AI: Implications for Global Democracies
- Modular AI Infrastructure: Rapid Evolution and Implications
- Recommendations: Technical, Policy, Diplomatic
- An update on Biden administration’s export controls
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- A video version of this conversation is available on our YouTube channel.
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