Generative AI, with its potential for rapid, customised content creation, poses significant challenges for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) focused on preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE), including in the Southeast Asian context. Extremist groups can employ Generative AI for purposes ranging from producing and disseminating targeted disinformation – including creating fabricated interviews or fake videos – manipulating public sentiment with tailored content, and using chatbots to befriend and groom the lonely and the vulnerable. The technology facilitates advanced propaganda distribution, sophisticated cyberattacks, and direct engagement with audiences, including seduction and ideological indoctrination via chatbots.
Additionally, Generative AI has enabled new forms of online fraud, stalking and privacy invasions. It even has the potential to transcend the cyber domain and engage in physical attacks by weaponising technology such as drones and other autonomous systems. As these risks emerge, it’s crucial for CSOs to adopt advanced countermeasures, redouble efforts to promote media literacy and develop critical thinking, and foster closer and more extensive collaboration with tech and security sectors.
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