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Iran Rejects US Allegations of AI-Driven Election Interference

By Nigar Bayramli October 5, 2024

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Former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris participate in a debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024. / The New York Times

Iran’s new Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baqai, has dismissed a US government report alleging that Iran is using artificial intelligence (AI) to interfere in the US elections.

In a statement reported by the IRNA news agency on October 4, Baqai described the accusations as “baseless and unfounded,” asserting that they are politically motivated and tied to domestic political dynamics within the US.

“The US government, which has a long history of illegal interference in other countries’ internal affairs, is in no position to make such allegations against others,” Baqai added, underscoring Iran’s rejection of the claims.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published its annual threat assessment on October 2, which highlighted growing concerns about foreign interference in the upcoming November 5 elections. The report identifies Russia, Iran, and China as key actors seeking to influence the elections, including the use of AI to spread fake or divisive information.

According to the DHS, Iran has become “increasingly aggressive in its foreign influence efforts.” One example cited in the report involves Iranian operatives posing as activists online to promote protests related to the conflict in Gaza.

The assessment further predicts that Russia, Iran, and China “will use a blend of subversive, undeclared, criminal, and coercive tactics” to find new ways to undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions and social cohesion.

On September 27, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated seven individuals as part of a coordinated response to Iran’s operations aimed at interfering in the 2024 and 2020 presidential elections.

OFAC’s statement outlined that “Iranian state-sponsored actors undertook a variety of malicious cyber activities, such as hack-and-leak operations and spear-phishing, in an attempt to undermine confidence in the United States’ election processes and institutions and to interfere with political campaigns.”

The agency further reported that since May 2024, Iran-based hackers had intensified their cyber-enabled attacks on the 2024 US presidential election, with groups such as “APT 42” and “Mint Sandstorm” identified by private security firms as responsible for these activities.

Earlier, in August 2024, the campaign of US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump claimed it had been hacked, attributing the breach to Iran. Meanwhile, the FBI and other US agencies alleged that Iranian hackers had attempted to involve President Joe Biden’s campaign by offering information stolen from Trump’s campaign, sending unsolicited emails to individuals associated with the then-Democratic candidate.

In the summer of 2024, the US government further identified that “Iran had been seeking to stoke discord and undermine confidence in the United States’ democratic institutions, using social engineering and other efforts to gain access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns.”

These efforts by Iran, using hacked materials from Trump’s campaign, followed what US officials described as a series of bold influence operations in 2020, reportedly authorized by Tehran’s senior leadership. Iran has repeatedly denied all such allegations.