The Chinese government is using companies with expertise in artificial intelligence to monitor and manipulate public opinion, giving it a new weapon in information warfare, according to current and former U.S. officials and documents unearthed by researchers.

据现任和前任美国官员的说法以及研究人员发现的文件显示，中国政府正在利用掌握人工智能技术的企业，监视和操纵舆论，为其信息战提供新武器。

One company’s internal documents show how it has undertaken influence campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and collected data on members of Congress and other influential Americans.

一家公司的内部文件显示，它在香港和台湾开展影响力活动，并收集美国的国会议员和其他影响力人士的数据。

While the firm has not mounted a campaign in the United States, American spy agencies have monitored its activity for signs that it might try to influence American elections or political debates, former U.S. officials said.

虽然该公司尚未在美国开展活动，但美国的情报机构已在监视，寻找其可能试图干预美国选举或政治辩论的迹象。

Artificial intelligence is increasingly the new frontier of espionage and malign influence operations, allowing intelligence services to conduct campaigns far faster, more efficiently and on a larger scale than ever before.

人工智能正在越来越多地成为间谍活动和恶意影响行动的新领域，这项技术让情报部门能比以往更快、更有效、更大规模地开展活动。

The Chinese government has long struggled to mount information operations targeting other countries, lacking the aggressiveness or effectiveness of Russian intelligence agencies. But U.S. officials and experts say that advances in A.I. could help China overcome its weaknesses.

中国政府长期以来难以成功地对其他国家的目标开展信息行动，它缺乏俄罗斯情报机构的那种攻击性和实效性。但美国官员和专家们表示，中国在人工智能方面取得的进展可能帮助其克服这些弱点。

A new technology can track public debates of interest to the Chinese government, offering the ability to monitor individuals and their arguments as well as broader public sentiment. The technology also has the promise of mass-producing propaganda that can counter shifts in public opinion at home and overseas.

这个新技术能追踪中国政府感兴趣的公开辩论，不仅能监控个人言论立场，还能把握整体舆论动向。该技术还有针对国内外舆论的变化大规模生成宣传材料的前景。

China’s emerging capabilities come as the U.S. government pulls back efforts to counter foreign malign influence campaigns.

正当美国政府逐步削减应对外国恶意影响行动的力度之际，中国在该领域的能力却正在不断提升。

U.S. spy agencies still collect information about foreign manipulation, but the Trump administration has dismantled the teams at the State Department, the F.B.I. and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency that warned the public about potential threats. In the last presidential election, the campaigns included Russian videos denigrating Vice President Kamala Harris and falsely claiming that ballots had been destroyed.

虽然美国情报机构仍在收集外国操纵舆论的信息，但特朗普政府已解散了国务院、联邦调查局以及网络安全和基础设施安全局负责向公众发布潜在威胁警告的团队。俄罗斯在上次的美国总统大选期间开展的恶意影响活动包括在网上散布诋毁副总统贺锦丽(Kamala Harris)和谎称选票已被销毁的视频。

The new technology allows the Chinese company GoLaxy, to go beyond the election influence campaigns undertaken by Russia in recent years, according to the documents.

据研究人员发现的文件，这项新技术让中国公司中科天玑能够在选举干预方面超越近年来俄罗斯所采取的影响行动。

It is not clear from the documents how effective GoLaxy’s campaigns in Taiwan, Hong Kong and inside China have been, or whether its technology can do all that it promises.

从这些文件中看不出来中科天玑在台湾、香港以及中国内部的行动效果，也不清楚其技术是否真的具备它所宣称的全部能力。

In a statement, GoLaxy denied that it was creating any sort of “bot network or psychological profiling tour” or that it had done any work related to Hong Kong or other elections. It called the information presented by The New York Times about the company “misinformation.”

中科天玑在声明中否认正在研发任何类型的“机器人账号网络或心理画像工具”，也否认公司参与过任何与香港或其他地方的选举有关的工作。声明将《纽约时报》提供的有关中科天玑的文件称为“虚假信息”。

“GoLaxy’s products are mainly based on open-source data, without specially collecting data targeting U.S. officials,” the firm said.

该公司表示：“中科天玑的产品主要基于开源数据，没有专门收集针对美国官员的数据。”

2022年，中科天玑在一次科技大会上的展位。

After being contacted by The Times, GoLaxy began altering its website, removing references to its national security work on behalf of the Chinese government.

在《纽约时报》取得联系后，该公司开始修改官网，删除了它为中国政府从事国家安全工作的相关内容。

The documents examined by researchers appear to have been leaked by a disgruntled employee upset about wages and working conditions at the company. While most of the documents are not dated, the majority of those that include dates are from 2020, 2022 and 2023. They were obtained by Vanderbilt University’s Institute of National Security, a nonpartisan research and educational center that studies cybersecurity, intelligence and other critical challenges.

研究人员审查的文件似乎是由一名对公司的薪资和工作条件不满的员工泄露的。虽然大多数文件没有注明日期，但有日期的文件大多来自2020年、2022年和2023年。这些文件由范德比尔特大学国家安全研究所获得，该研究所是一个研究网络安全、情报和其他关键挑战的无党派研究和教育中心。

Publicly, GoLaxy advertises itself as a firm that gathers data and analyzes public sentiment for Chinese companies and the government. But in the documents, which were reviewed by The Times, the company privately claims that it can use a new technology to reshape and influence public opinion on behalf of the Chinese government.

中科天玑对外宣称自己是一家为中国企业和政府收集数据并分析公众情绪的公司。但在《纽约时报》审阅的文件中，该公司私下声称可以通过一项新技术，为中国政府重塑和影响公众舆论。

The company explains how precisely it can aim its efforts at individual social media and internet users by using a technology called the Smart Propaganda System, or GoPro.

该公司详细说明了如何利用一种名为“智能宣传系统”（Smart Propaganda System，又称GoPro）的技术，精准针对社交媒体和互联网用户。

The Vanderbilt researchers Brett J. Goldstein and Brett V. Benson revealed the existence of the documents in a guest essay for The New York Times Opinion section, arguing that GoLaxy is able to mine social media profiles and then create content that can produce customized content that “feels authentic, adapts in real-time and avoids detection.” The result, they said, is a “propaganda engine” that can generate far more material than seen before.

范德比尔特大学的研究人员布雷特·戈尔茨坦和布雷特·本森在《纽约时报》观点版面撰文，披露了这些文件的存在，他们认为中科天玑有能力挖掘社交媒体资料，然后生成“真实感强，还能实时调整，让对话者难以察”的定制内容。他们说，由此获得的是一个“宣传引擎”，能够生成比以前多得多的材料。

“A.I.-driven propaganda is no longer a hypothetical future threat,” they wrote. “It is operational, sophisticated and already reshaping how public opinion can be manipulated on a large scale.”

他们写道：“人工智能驱动的政治宣传已不再是假想的未来威胁。这种复杂巧妙的技术已投入使用，并正在重塑大规模舆论操控的模式。”

Experts say the firm is rapidly adopting China’s advanced artificial intelligence technologies, which, according to the internal company documents, should allow GoLaxy to undertake influence operations that are far more sophisticated than foreign governments have previously been able to conduct.

专家表示，该公司正在迅速采用中国先进的人工智能技术，根据公司内部文件，这些技术应该能让中科天玑的影响力行动在复杂程度上远超外国政府之前的做法。

In traditional influence operations — think Russia’s social media efforts in 2016 to spread chaos in the United States — disinformation had to be made piece by piece. Automated bots could amplify certain messages, but countries like Russia needed to build troll farms, operations using dozens or hundreds of people, to write fake posts, sometimes in halting English. The disinformation the troll farms could spread was limited.

在传统的影响力行动中——比如俄罗斯2016年通过社交媒体在美国制造混乱的行动——虚假信息必须逐条制作。自动机器人可以放大某些信息，但像俄罗斯这样的国家需要建立“网络水军工厂”，动用数十甚至数百人撰写虚假帖子，有时这些帖子还是蹩脚的英文。这类水军工厂能传播的虚假信息是有限的。

GoLaxy’s technology has the potential to upend the influence business.

而中科天玑的技术有可能彻底颠覆影响力行业。

Just as artificial intelligence can help American high school students instantly write out hard-to-tell-they-are-fake papers for their classes, foreign governments can use the new technology to create far more believable propaganda on a far greater scale.

正如人工智能可以帮助美国高中生瞬间写出几乎真假难辨的论文一样，外国政府也可以利用这种新技术，以更大规模炮制出可信度更高的宣传内容。

According to the documents, GoLaxy’s new technology has the promise to automatically track broad swings in public opinion, as well as the arguments of specific influential individuals.

据这些文件显示，中科天玑的新技术有望自动追踪舆论的大范围变化，以及特定意见领袖的论点。

GoLaxy’s public-facing platform, according to its website, has begun using DeepSeek, an advanced artificial intelligence model developed by a Chinese company. GoLaxy can quickly craft responses that reinforce the Chinese government’s views and counter opposing arguments. Once put into use, such posts could drown out organic debate with propaganda.

根据官网信息，中科天玑面向公众的平台已经开始使用中国自己开发的先进人工智能模型DeepSeek。中科天玑能够迅速生成回应，以强化中国政府的立场并反驳反对意见。一旦投入使用，这些宣传帖就可能淹没真实的讨论。

The company can collect data from an array of Chinese and Western social media companies. According to the documents, it brings in tens of millions of pieces of data, including posts and user data, from Weibo, a popular social media platform, 1.8 million articles per day from WeChat, four million social media posts from X and 10,000 Facebook posts, all to amass and refine profiles on individuals.

该公司能从一系列中外社交媒体公司收集数据。文件显示，它每日从微博获取数千万条帖子及用户数据，从微信获取180万篇文章，从X平台（原Twitter）获取400万条帖文，从Facebook获取1万条帖子，这些数据用来建立并完善个人画像。

The company is searching for political commentary that bolsters views that Beijing supports and also develops messaging to counter opinions the Chinese Communist Party is trying to stamp out. That has included criticism of China’s Covid policies, opposition to China’s increasing control over Hong Kong, and support for the ruling party of Taiwan, according to the internal company documents.

该公司正在寻找那些支持北京立场的政治评论，并制定信息策略，用于反击中共想要压制的观点。文件称，目标包括对中国新冠政策的批评、反对中国对香港日益增强的控制，以及对台湾执政党的支持。

GoPro “already possesses the ability to be aware of political situations, target in real time, create high-quality content and perform rapid counterattacks,” the company says, adding that the new system “has already produced certain political effects in relevant state departments.”

GoPro“已具备感知政治局势、实时目标锁定、生成高质量内容和快速反制的能力”，公司称，并且新系统“已经在相关国家部门中产生了一定的政治影响”。

The company, according to documents, has done work for China’s intelligence, including the Ministry of State Security — the country’s main spy agency — and internal security agencies.

文件还显示，该公司曾为中国情报系统工作，包括国家安全部——也就是中国的主要情报机构——以及其他国内安全机构。

Former U.S. officials said that American spy agencies had information confirming those partnerships.

前美国官员表示，美国情报机构掌握的信息证实了这些合作关系。

The company’s work, according to current and former American officials, is aligned with China’s national security strategy, an assessment that the documents buttress.

据现任和前任美国官员称，该公司的业务与中国的国家安全战略是一致的，而文件内容也支持这一判断。

James Mulvenon, who has studied Chinese information operations, said that GoLaxy had been gathering huge amounts of data on potential targets of the Chinese state and using artificial intelligence to develop new propaganda tools.

长期研究中国信息战的毛文杰(James Mulvenon)表示，中科天玑一直在收集大量有关中国国家潜在目标的数据，并利用人工智能开发新的宣传工具。

“GoLaxy is an incredibly important company,” said Mr. Mulvenon, who is also the chief intelligence officer at Pamir Consulting, which analyzes risks for businesses in China. “It is deeply tied into the Chinese government’s security apparatus and the military. They are building new tools that are proposing to do a better job at information operations.”

“中科天玑是一家非常重要的公司，”毛文杰说道，他也是Pamir Consulting的首席情报官，该公司专门评估企业在华运营的风险。“它与中国政府的安全部门和军方关系密切，正在开发旨在提升信息战效能的新工具。”

GoLaxy appears to have focused most of its efforts on collecting information on the Chinese population, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

中科天玑似乎将主要精力集中在收集中国以及港台人口的信息上。

But it claims in a document that it has assembled virtual profiles on 117 current and former members of Congress, including Representatives Byron Donalds of Florida, Chip Roy of Texas and Andy Biggs of Arizona. All of the representatives listed in the documents obtained by the Vanderbilt researchers were Republicans, though it is likely that the firm also collected information on Democrats.

但根据一份文件，它声称已经为117名现任和前任美国国会议员建立了虚拟画像，其中包括佛罗里达州议员拜伦·唐纳兹、德克萨斯州议员奇普·罗伊和亚利桑那州议员安迪·比格斯。范德比尔特大学研究人员获得的文件中列出的议员都是共和党人，不过该公司很可能也收集了民主党人的信息。

In addition, according to the documents, GoLaxy tracks and collects information on more than 2,000 American political and public figures, 4,000 right-wing influencers and supporters of President Trump, in addition to journalists, scholars and entrepreneurs.

此外，根据文件，中科天玑还跟踪和收集了2000多名美国政治和公众人物、4000名右翼意见领袖和特朗普总统支持者，以及记者、学者和企业家的信息。

The documents do not show how detailed the data on American politicians might be, nor does GoLaxy say what it is doing with the information. But U.S. officials have long claimed that China tracks American politicians’ policy positions on issues of importance to Beijing.

文件没有显示美国政客相关数据的详尽程度，中科天玑也没有说明它对这些信息的具体用途。但美国官员长期以来一直声称，中国会跟踪美国政治人物在北京关注议题上的政策立场。

Former U.S. officials said that while China tried to meddle in some local elections in 2024, it stayed largely on the sidelines of the presidential vote, and the U.S. saw no evidence that GoLaxy conducted influence operations in the United States.

前美国官员称，尽管中国在2024年曾试图干预一些地方选举，但在总统大选中基本保持观望，美国也没有发现中科天玑在美开展影响力行动的证据。

The Chinese government may not direct GoLaxy’s day-to-day activities, but current and former officials say there is little doubt that the firm’s information operations are endorsed by the Chinese government and that the Communist Party has ultimate control over the firm.

尽管中国政府可能并不直接指挥中科天玑的日常运作，但现任和前任官员都表示，几乎可以肯定这家公司的信息行动得到了中国政府的支持，而共产党对该公司拥有最终控制权。

Sugon, a state-controlled super computing company that is on the U.S. government’s export black list, is an investor. And GoLaxy was founded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a state-owned institution, according to GoLaxy’s website and the documents.

受美国出口管制的中国国有超级计算公司中科曙光是其投资方。而根据官网和前述文件，中科天玑由中国科学院创办，后者本身就是国家机构。

“The company publicly says they are developing generative A.I. capabilities for national strategic missions,” said Jimmy Goodrich, a China researcher and senior adviser to the RAND Corporation for technology analysis. “This is an extension of a state institution.”

“这家公司公开宣称正在为国家战略任务开发生成式人工智能能力，”兰德公司的技术分析高级顾问、中国问题研究员吉米·古德里奇表示，“它是国家机构的延伸。”

In its statement GoLaxy said that it was a “purely independent commercial enterprise that is not affiliated with any government agency or organization.”

中科天玑在声明中表示，公司是一家“纯粹的独立商业企业，不隶属于任何政府机构或组织”。