US SECRETARY of state Antony Blinken revealed today that America has proof China is trying to influence its November presidential election.
It came after tech giant Microsoft warned that China could use artificial intelligence tech to pursue its agenda in the ballot boxes.
Despite Xi Jinping's promise not to interfere, the US has seen "evidence of attempts to influence and arguably interfere" ahead of the presidential vote.
Blinken, speaking to CNN after a visit to China, shared his concerns about the nation's intentions in the run up to a tense election season.
The three day trip involved meetings with despot Xi, covering everything from Putin's war in Russia to American tech policies.
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Biden's right hand man took the opportunity to issue a warning for China over any further interference.
Blinken said: “We have seen, generally speaking, evidence of attempts to influence and arguably interfere, and we want to make sure that that’s cut off as quickly as possible.
“Any interference by China in our election is something that we’re looking very carefully at and is totally unacceptable to us, so I wanted to make sure that they heard that message again."
The Chinese government has previously been linked to dodgy online groups who have used AI against American and Taiwanese voters, among others.
Their campaigns have tried to stoke chaos, taking advantage of divisive domestic issues, in order to influence voting.
They have also appeared more advanced in recent months.
Some posts shared last year focused on American drug issues, immigration policies and racial politics.
Tom Burt, chief of customer security and threat at Microsoft, told the Wall Street Journal: "We’re seeing them experiment.
"I’m worried about where it might go next."
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE THREAT
Microsoft recently warned that China would use AI to flood the internet with fake media in a bid to influence the elections.
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They warned that "at a minimum" China could flood social media with AI-generated content that "benefits their positions in these elections".
In a report published by the company's threat intelligence team, Microsoft said it expects Chinese state-backed cyber groups to target high-profile elections around the world.
And it warned of the nefarious cyber-threat's effective nature.
It read: "China’s increasing experimentation in augmenting memes, videos and audio will continue – and may prove effective down the line."
The report suggested that Beijing has "doubled down" on its targets and increased the sophistication of its influence operations against America's electoral campaigns.
Clint Watts, general manager of Microsoft's threat analysis, said: "China is using fake social media accounts to poll voters on what divides them most to sow division and possibly influence the outcome of the US presidential election in its favour.
"China has also increased its use of AI-generated content to further its goals around the world."