The US has issued sanctions on organizations in Russia and Iran for attempting to interfere with the 2024 presidential election. The Treasury Department said on Tuesday that the groups tried to stoke socio-political tensions and influence voters.One group, the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise, has ties to Russias Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), and built a server to host its own AI tools to avoid foreign web-hosting services that would block their activity. The organization then used these tools to quickly create disinformation that it spread across dozens of fake online news outlets, while also providing US-based companies with money to maintain its AI server and operate a network of at least 100 websites used in its campaign.Additionally, the Russian organization manipulated a video to produce baseless accusations concerning a2024 vice presidential candidate. In October, the US accused Russia of creating a video that attempted to smear Vice President Kamala Harriss running mate, Tim Walz.RelatedThe Treasury Department also sanctioned the Cognitive Design Production Center, a subsidiary of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), for planning to interfere with the election since at least 2023. In the weeks leading up to the election, the US Department of Justice indicted Iranian nationals accused of waging a cyberattack against President-elect Donald Trumps campaign, while OpenAI reported banning ChatGPT accounts linked to an Iranian influence operation.The Governments of Iran and Russia have targeted our election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns, Bradley Smith, the Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in the press release.