Extremists use AI voice cloning to further their propaganda. Experts say it helps them grow

WAs the artificial intelligence boom upends parts of the music industry, speech-generating bots are also becoming a boon for another unusual corner of the internet: extremist movements, which use them to recreate the voices and speeches of major figures in their circles, and experts say it helps them grow.

“The adoption of AI-powered translation by terrorists and extremists represents a significant evolution in digital propaganda strategies,” said Lucas Webber, senior threat intelligence analyst at Tech Against Terrorism and a research fellow at the Soufan Center. Webber specializes in monitoring the online tools of terrorist groups and extremists around the world.

“Previous methods relied on human translators or rudimentary machine translation, which were often limited by linguistic fidelity and stylistic nuances,” he said. “With the advent of advanced generative AI tools, these groups are now able to produce seamless, context-accurate translations that preserve tone,…