Beijing Uses AI and Gambling Groups to Infiltrate Australia

Thinktank recommends auditing and regulation

An AI (Artificial Intelligence) logo blended with four fake Twitter accounts bearing profile pictures apparently generated by Artificial Intelligence software taken in Helsinki, Finland, on June 12, 2023. Olivier Morin/AFP via Getty Images

Beijing is suspected of infiltrating Australia with gambling crime syndicates, using online gambling websites and a large number of AI-generated fake social media accounts to spread and promote false information.

Australian intelligence said that the Chinese communist regime used a transnational gambling crime syndicate based in Myanmar to push false information about Australian politics, such as “The Voice to Parliament” referendum, through the group’s online forums and chat rooms, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Although the topic is real, AI-generated chat accounts further amplify the generated false information. Even AI-generated chats from Twitter accounts with random images and conversations were fake, they were accepted, replied to or retweeted by real Twitter users who thought it was legitimate news.

Many in the Chinese Australian community, in particular, do not doubt that they are having conversations with AI as these conversational messages use recognisable legal hashtags such as #AUKUS and #MeToo to gain attention.

While Beijing’s propaganda and foreign influence campaigns are not something new, this is the first known use of Beijing utilising a known transnational criminal entity as a proxy actor.

ASPI Warns Chinese AI-Enabled Technology

An Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) report published last month, titled “De-risking authoritarian AI,” has warned that in terms of AI-enabled technology, the Chinese Communist Party can pose more risks to Australia than other authoritarian powers.

“In contrast to other authoritarian countries such as Russia, Iran, and North Korea, China is a technology superpower with global capacity and ambitions and is a major exporter of effective, cost-competitive AI-enabled technology into democracies,” reads the report.

Simeon Gilding, the author of the report and a senior fellow of the institute, said the concern isn’t China’s AI capabilities but rather companies that need to succumb to the authoritarian government’s wide-ranging security laws.

A security officer keeps watch in front of an AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign at the annual Huawei Connect event in Shanghai, China on Sept. 18, 2019. Aly Song/Reuters

“They’re subject to direction from PRC security and intelligence agencies,” he wrote.

The report specified three kinds of Chinese AI-enabled technology Australians should worry about:

1. Products and Services (often physical infrastructure), where PRC ownership exposes democracies to risks of espionage (notably surveillance and data theft) and sabotage (disruption and denial of products and services)
2. AI-enabled technology that facilitates foreign interference (malign covert influence on behalf of a foreign power), the most pervasive example being TikTok
3. ‘Large language model AI’ and other emerging generative AI systems—a future threat that we need to start thinking about now.

What’s the Solution?

The APSI report recommended three possible solutions to tackle the threat from Beijing: auditing current systems, building a “red team” of experts to find holes in security systems, and regulating emerging technology.

An example of a “red team” solution is the method of using “a thief to catch a thief.”

“We know that TikTok data can be accessed by PRC agencies and reportedly also reveal a user’s location, so it’s obvious that military and government officials shouldn’t use the app. Journalists should also think carefully about this, too. Beyond that, the merits of a general ban on technical security grounds are a bit murky,” the report said.

“Can our Red Team use the app to jump onto connected mobiles and IT systems to plant spying malware? What system mitigations could stop them getting access to data on connected systems? If the team revealed serious vulnerabilities that can’t be mitigated, a general ban might be appropriate.”

Visitors walk past a stand with AI security cameras using facial recognition technology at the 14th China International Exhibition on Public Safety and Security at the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing on Oct. 24, 2018. Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

Regulation could also include prohibiting Chinese AI technology on certain systems, such as national security networks or government devices, or banning it entirely.

Mr. Gilding said regulation was needed to prevent further security threats.

“It is a balanced measure in a world in which China is neither at peace nor at war with us,” he said. “We should be vigilant about the balloons in the sky, but we should think harder about the ghosts in the machine.”

However, he noted that a blanket ban would be costly and disruptive.

“Many businesses and researchers in the democracies want to continue collaborating on Chinese AI-enabled products because it helps them to innovate, build better products, offer cheaper services, and publish scientific breakthroughs,” he said.

Home Affairs Minister: Foreign Interference Not Tolerated 

Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil has previously warned that hostile foreign powers seeking to influence Australia’s democracy would be dealt with swift action.

Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil speaks at at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Sept. 5, 2022. AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

“We will not tolerate, under any circumstances, attempts by foreign governments–and it is important to stress that foreign interference doesn’t just come from one country–to secretly influence our cherished democracy,” she said in February, right before Mike Burgess, the head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) revealed that foreign interference had increased significantly in Australia.

“Foreign interference is relentless, it is insidious, and it not only affects individuals – it fundamentally undermines our democratic processes. The Australian government is doing everything within its power to protect our democracy against any and all attempts to weaken it.”