Microsoft researchers said on Friday that Iran government-tied hackers tried breaking into the account of a "high-ranking official" on the US presidential campaign in June, weeks after breaching the account of a county-level US official. The breaches were part of Iranian groups' increasing attempts to influence the US presidential election in November, the researchers said in a report that did not provide any further detail on the apparent official in question. The report follows recent statements by senior US intelligence officials that they had seen Iran ramp up use of clandestine social media accounts with the aim to use them to try to sow political discord in the US. The report also reveals how Russia and China are exploiting US political polarization to advance their own divisive messaging in a consequential election year. Iran's mission to the UN in New York told Reuters in a statement that its cyber capabilities were "defensive and proportionate to the threats it faces" and that it had no plans to launch cyber-attacks.

Faking a political endorsement in Taiwan ahead of its crucial January election, sharing memes to amplify outrage over Japan's disposal of nuclear wastewater, and spreading conspiracy theories that claim the U.S. government was behind Hawaii's wildfire and Kentucky's train derailment last year. These are just some of the ways that China's influence operations have ramped up their use of artificial intelligence to sow disinformation and stoke discord worldwide over the last seven months, according to a new report released Friday by Microsoft Threat Intelligence. Microsoft has observed notable trends from state-backed actors, the report said, "that demonstrate not only doubling down on familiar targets, but also attempts to use more sophisticated influence techniques to achieve their goals." In particular, Chinese influence actors "experimented with new media" and "continued to refine AI-generated or AI-enhanced content." Among the operations highlighted in the report was a "a notable uptick in content featuring Taiwanese political figures ahead of the January 13 presidential and legislative elections."

Artificial intelligence is about more than robots. Whether someone considers themself a tech expert, or a newbie when it comes to technology, there are still a plethora of things in any modern home that use artificial intelligence (AI). But while it's easy to get pulled into a world of science-fiction robots like Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Skynet from the Terminator series, or the robot on Lost in Space that often gave the warning, "Danger, Will Robinson!", everyone is slowly coming to realize that it's really nothing like that. In a typical household, everything from smart assistants in the form of smart speakers, vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers, streaming services, and spam filters are all powered by AI. And of course there are now an assortment of cute AI dogs, cats and other robotic pets as well. Microsoft estimates that 85% of Americans already use AI.

Microsoft UK has reported an "encouraging increase" in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in healthcare. In a survey of the use of AI in UK industry, 46% of healthcare leaders reported their organisation used the technology in some capacity, reflecting an 8% increase compared to 2018. The biggest growth areas reported were research-level AI, which grew 13% in the past 12 months. Robot process automation (RPA) and general automation both increased by 10%, while the use of voice recognition technology increased by 9%. The study, conducted by YouGov, included the input of some 1,000 business leaders and 4,000 employees.