As Australia edges toward another election, a new and invisible threat stalks our democratic process, not from hackers in dark rooms, but from sophisticated, well-funded nation states wielding artificial intelligence. According to Ginny Badanes, General Manager of Democracy Forward at Microsoft, 2024 has seen democracy itself placed in the crosshairs. Badanes pulls back the curtain on a new reality, that global elections aren’t just about ballots anymore. They’re about shadow operations, fake news factories, and AI-powered influence ops on a scale never before seen. “We tracked North Korea, Russia, China, and Iran,” Badanes reveals. “Each with their own playbook, exploiting AI and cyber campaigns to ...