Chinese biz using AI to hit US politicians, influencers with propaganda

DEF CON A cache of documents uncovered by Vanderbilt University has revealed disturbing details about how a Chinese company is building up a database of US politicians and influencers with whom to share propaganda.

A Vanderbilt security researcher says documents show that GoLaxy has been using AI to generate social media profiles and map existing ones to influence public opinion. GoLaxy claims to have been operating in Hong Kong and Taiwan to influence public opinion in favor of Beijing’s policies, but now it appears that it has been targeting US politicians and social media influencers using AI, although it’s trying to cover its tracks.

“Some of the documents refer to the company using DeepSeek in this,” Professor Brett Goldstein from Vanderbilt told The Register. “But once we published the documents they started stripping references to the technology from [the] website very rapidly.”

While Russia has made a habit of trying to influence Americans, it has typically relied on humans to run propaganda campaigns. Using AI is a new wrinkle, and distinctly Chinese.

“We always rated the Russians as the best in information operations that impact America – China was really well down there,” former NSA boss General Paul Nakasone said at a press conference at the DEF CON hacking conference in Las Vegas. “They weren’t that effective in being able to understand the message, understand the issues, understand perhaps even the language that they’re using. But I do see this as being really the next generation of what we’re going to see in gray zone conflict in the future.”

We always rated the Russians as the best at information warfare, with the Chinese way down there. That’s now changing rapidly

The company sells itself as a social media mapping agency that monitors public sentiment on Chinese networks, although both the researchers and former NSA boss Nakasone say it has strong ties to the Chinese government. But the documents apparently show that, privately, it is selling itself as an influencer, using AI-generated content to shape public opinion in a system described as Smart Propaganda System, or “GoPro.”

The documents detail how GoLaxy “already possesses the ability to be aware of political situations, target in real time, create high-quality content and perform rapid counterattacks,” and claim it “has already produced certain political effects in relevant state departments,” according to the researchers’ translation.

Goldstein said Vanderbilt is still processing the documents, 99 percent of which are in Mandarin. However, researchers already see that the company is moving its attention to America, particularly politicians and other high-profile public figures.

We reached out to GoLaxy for comment, but did not hear back by press time. However, the company denied the claims in a statement to the New York Times, calling them misinformation saying that its products were mainly based on open-source datas.

Nakasone said that the case provides proof that China is upping its propaganda game, and called on the commercial sector to develop tools to spot and block such efforts. But the rapidly evolving nature of AI means that it will be a challenge to keep up the technology.

“We need the private sector to help out with synthetic messaging,” he said. “We need to do it faster, more efficiently and at scale.” ®

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