Google to Automatically Generate Disclosures for AI-Generated Political Ads - 1

Image by Greg Bulla on Unsplash

Google to Automatically Generate Disclosures for AI-Generated Political Ads

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by Justyn Newman Former Lead Cybersecurity Editor

Google shared a new update last week announcing a new disclosure tag required for political content generated with artificial intelligence.

“Advertisers are now required to disclose election ads that contain synthetic or digitally altered content that inauthentically depicts real or realistic-looking people or events by selecting the checkbox in the ‘Altered or synthetic content’ section in their campaign settings,” states the document.

Google will automatically generate an in-ad disclosure according to the type of content being promoted for feeds and shorts on mobile phones, as well as in-stream content for computers, phones, mobile web, and TV screens.

Advertisers must choose from a checkbox one of the options that best suits the type of political AI-content they want to advertise. The four main tags are: “This audio was computer generated”, “Altered or synthetic content”, “This video content was synthetically generated”, and “This image does not depict real events.”

The new measure has been implemented during a controversial election year in the United States and when concerns regarding AI-generated political ads have risen.

Google’s update was announced also just a few weeks after a political scammer was fined $6 million for making deep fake robocalls cloning President Joe Biden’s voice back in January.

Australia Accuses China-Linked Hackers of Targeting Government Networks - 2

Image by Boitumelo on Unsplash

Australia Accuses China-Linked Hackers of Targeting Government Networks

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by Justyn Newman Former Lead Cybersecurity Editor

The Australian government along with cybersecurity agencies from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, and Japan, accused the cyber group Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) 40 backed by the Chinese government of targeting organizations in multiple countries and published an advisory on Monday.

The document , titled People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ministry of State Security APT40 Tradecraft in Action , provides more details on how the threat group—also known as Kryptonite Panda, Bronze Mohawk, GINGHAM TYPHOON, and Leviathan in the industry— operates and provides cases of study.

APT 40 has been reported to be located in Hainan Province, Haikou, and PRC, and receiving orders from Chinese government security agencies like the Hainan State Security Department and the Ministry of State Security (MSS). The threat group can quickly “transform and adapt exploit proof-of-concept(s) (POCs) of new vulnerabilities and immediately utilize them against target networks possessing the infrastructure of the associated vulnerability.”

The Australian government has informed that Australian networks—including networks in the private and government sectors—have been repeatedly attacked and represent an ongoing threat to them and to multiple countries across the globe.

Other agencies, including the United States National Security Agency (NSA), Japan’s National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NISC), the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the United Kingdom National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK), the New Zealand National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-NZ), the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS) participated in the research.

The Chinese government has also been accused of spying on U.S. citizens through the social media app TikTok and is currently in a legal battle against the U.S. government .