China, Russia will 'very likely' use AI to target Canadian voters: Intelligence agency

Catharine Tunney · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 06, 2025 10:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

Canada's cyber quality bureau is informing that countries including China, Russia and Iran volition "very likely" thin connected artificial quality to effort and interfere successful the upcoming national predetermination and mislead voters.

In a study assessing threats to Canada's antiauthoritarian process successful the upcoming year, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) said those known hostile actors are looking to usage AI to substance disinformation campaigns oregon motorboat hacking operations.

While the 28-page document suggests the threats are existent and evolving, CSE does accent that it believes it's "very unlikely" that AI-enabled activities volition "fundamentally undermine the integrity of Canada's adjacent wide election."

It said these actors "are astir apt to usage generative Al arsenic a means of creating and spreading disinformation, designed to sow part among Canadians and propulsion narratives conducive to the interests of overseas states," wrote the bureau successful its report, released Thursday morning. 

"Canadian politicians and governmental parties are astatine heightened hazard of being targeted by cyber menace actors, peculiarly done phishing attempts."

Generative AI is the exertion powering fashionable tools similar ChatGPT that are trained connected immense amounts of information to make a effect to a wide scope of requests from a user.

The study focuses connected the rapidly evolving and progressively affordable technology. There are generative AI tools that tin make text, images, machine code, euphony oregon video, and others tin rapidly benignant and analyse data. 

Only immoderate of those tools person applied strict guardrails for their use.

WATCH | Can you spot the deepfake? How AI is threatening elections: 

Bridget Walshe, the subordinate caput of the CSE's Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, said the technology can beryllium instructed to make an relationship connected societal media, log successful and commencement posting each connected its ain — allowing for misinformation to dispersed astatine an concern scale.

"A quality doesn't adjacent request to make that account," she said.

There are already signs overseas states are meddling successful Canadian politics.

Last month, a task unit acceptable up to show overseas predetermination interference reported that Liberal enactment campaigner Chrystia Freeland was targeted by a disinformation campaign.

The Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force (SITE) said it detected "co-ordinated and malicious activity" targeting Freeland that was traced to an anonymous but fashionable quality relationship connected the fashionable societal media platform WeChat. The authorities task unit said the relationship has been linked to the People's Republic of China.

Parties clasp troves of data

CSE says Canadian politicians and governmental parties are apt to beryllium targeted by menace actors seeking to behaviour hack-and-leak operations, wherever stolen accusation is enactment online to origin harm oregon embarrassment. 

Walshe said CSE has seen the maneuver successful different countries successful attempts to power their elections.

The quality bureau says overseas actors could easy usage generative AI to prosecute with targets arsenic portion of an extended phishing cognition to breach their networks. 

Some federation states, including China, person already amassed billions of information points connected politicians, public figures similar journalists and citizens astir the satellite typically done open-source acquisition, covert purchase and theft, says the report. 

"Canadian governmental parties clasp terabytes of politically applicable information astir Canadian voters arsenic bash commercialized information brokers," the study notes.

That information tin beryllium harnessed to tally targeted idiosyncratic power oregon espionage campaigns, says CSE, which is liable for monitoring overseas signals quality and is the pb connected Canada's cyber operations. 

"We measure overseas actors are astir surely attempting to get this data, which they tin past weaponize against Canadian antiauthoritarian processes," reads the report.

Chances of an aboriginal predetermination growing 

CSE does accidental it's improbable that hostile actors volition transportation retired a destructive cyberattack against predetermination infrastructure, specified arsenic attempting to paralyze telecommunications systems connected predetermination day, "outside of imminent oregon nonstop equipped conflict."

It said the People's Republic of China is the astir apt to deploy its immense AI capabilities to propulsion narratives favourable to its interests and dispersed disinformation among Canadian voters, successful peculiar "Chinese-diaspora communities." 

CSE suggests Russia and Iran spot the Canadian election as a little precedence people compared to the U.S. and U.K.

Domestic activists tin besides easy entree off-the-shelf AI tools and "will astir surely usage these tools to dispersed disinformation up of a nationalist election" 

Despite the sobering menace assessment, Walshe said CSE and its cyber centre are acceptable to respond. 

"We've provided proposal and guidance to governmental parties, to candidates and we enactment intimately with our colleagues astatine Elections Canada to guarantee the cybersecurity of the election," she said.

It's a virtual certainty that Canadians volition find themselves astatine the ballot container this spring.

The Conservatives, who are inactive starring successful the polls but person seen their dominance gaffe successful caller weeks, person been adamant astir their plans to bring down the authorities astatine the archetypal accidental aft Parliament returns March 24.

The NDP has besides said it would topple the Liberals, but is present suggesting the House of Commons reconvene for an exigency league to walk a enactment bundle for workers impacted by the commercialized warfare first. 

There's besides a accidental an predetermination is called earlier Parliament returns, depending connected the result of Sunday's Liberal enactment convention.

Perceived front-runner Mark Carney hasn't said publically whether he'd telephone a drawback election.

His main rival, erstwhile concern curate and Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland, promised Wednesday to consult with premiers and concern and national leaders arsenic her archetypal enactment if she becomes premier curate connected whether to telephone a national election.

Thursday's CSE study is an update to an appraisal it enactment retired successful 2022 looking astatine threats to Canada's antiauthoritarian institutions, including the usage of deceptive deepfakes — hyper-realistic generated images and videos — to fool voters.

The updated menace appraisal echoes those aboriginal warnings and points to the troubling inclination of deepfake pornography. 

"Canadian nationalist figures, particularly women and members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community, are astatine heightened risk," said the report, which could "deter information successful ideology for those targeted." 

The informing follows a study from the overseas interference inquiry, which investigated cases of meddling successful Canada's elections.

Commissioner Justice Marie-Josée Hogue wrote that portion overseas interference is concerning, misinformation and disinformation "pose an adjacent greater menace to democracy."