Generative AI as a Weapon of War in Iran – Brookings

Wirtschafter, Valerie. “Generative AI as a Weapon of War in Iran.” Brookings.Edu, Brookings, 8 Apr. 2026, www.brookings.edu/articles/generative-ai-as-a-weapon-of-war-in-iran/.

Summary: Wirtschafter argues that Generative AI is being used by both the US and Iran as a means of propaganda and information espionage, and are conducting misinformation tactics using AI at a much higher level than in previous conflicts where generative AI was still an available tool. Wirtschafter uses gathered data from community notes on X about posts flagged for AI use by multiple users. She argues that because community notes flagging AI has exponentially increased on post after the Iran conflict, that more generative AI content is being created that may pertain to the conflict. This method of data support might be shaky, as not all the flagged posts represented in the data may actually be AI generated, or not all the AI generated content is flagged, Wirtschafter still argues that this data does indicate the issue, as the amount of flagged posts has still greatly increased, indicating that something is going on involving AI generation.

Why this matters: With how fast AI programs have been advancing and how accurate they are at mimicking real-life text and video it is becoming harder and harder to determine what is real and what isn’t just from online sources. This is made even worse when governments have taken towards using generative AI for propaganda to promote their side in an escalating conflict.