- Iran has been using AI-generated content to spread false narratives, and Russia and China are helping
- AI-generated content can impair decision-making even among seasoned military planners
- AI-generated disinformation is eroding confidence in digital information
The threat of artificial intelligence-generated media is not a future concern but is something that is happening right now. Widespread access to highly sophisticated AI tools has made producing synthetic content faster than ever, turning the technology into a force multiplier for digital deception.
Adversaries are rapidly deploying hyper-realistic fake images and videos at scale to malign U.S. interests. While much of the conversation around AI-generated disinformation centers on politics, the technology also poses a serious threat to defense operations and decision-making.
AI as a transformative tool for intelligence and a threat to national security will be at the center of conversations at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Intel Summit on Sept. 24. The event will have multiple panels that will explore how intelligence agencies can integrate AI to support their missions and evaluate the security risks of the technology when deployed in classified environments. Sign up today to join the conversation!
How Does Iran Use AI in Its Disinformation Operations?
The internet became a battleground in the United States’ conflict with Iran in early 2026. Shortly after Washington launched a military strike against Iran, fake videos of attacks on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln circulated online.
One user on X claimed that Iranian missiles sank the ship, Politifact reported. Another post declared that the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier was on fire after Tehran’s retaliatory strikes.
The U.S. Central Command refuted the fake strike videos, adding that the USS Abraham Lincoln continues to support CENTCOM’s effort to eliminate “threats from the Iranian regime.”
“The Lincoln was not hit,” the command stated on X. “The missiles launched didn’t even come close.”
According to the Atlantic Council, information dominance is central to Iran’s foreign and domestic policy, and Tehran’s digital influence operations have existed long before the AI era. The Iranian regime, the council said, has been operating Facebook and Twitter, now X, sockpuppets as early as 2010.
China and Russia
Iran is not the only U.S. adversary utilizing AI for disinformation. According to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Russia and China are amplifying Tehran’s anti-U.S. narratives to sow confusion about what is happening on the ground. FDD pointed to a pro-China account on X that shared a fake image of an American KC-135 refueling aircraft shot down by the Iraqi resistance.
Lisa Kaplan, CEO of analyst group Alethea, told BBC that accounts linked to Russian influence operations were also involved in the spread of fake news. Some synthetic images and videos of F-35s shot down or destroyed were widely shared online. One video posted on TikTok that had millions of views showed an Israeli F-35 shot down, but the footage was actually from a video game. Kaplan shared that the focus on F-35s is part of Moscow’s effort to downplay the capability of Western weaponry.
Social Media
Social media is a primary channel that adversaries use to spread fabricated or deceptive content. In a report published in March, Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub found at least 62 social media accounts, operating primarily on X, that are affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. The X accounts alone produced 59,403 original posts and accrued thousands of reposts, according to the report.
In the same month, Meta also said that it removed eight Facebook accounts, two Facebook pages and 294 Instagram accounts for coordinated inauthentic behaviors. The company said the accounts originated in Iran.
What Are the Effects of AI-Generated Disinformation?
War Secretary Pete Hegseth, a 2026 Wash100 winner, said in a March press briefing that Iran’s AI-generated images are created to “make it look like something’s happening when the exact opposite is” and to “lie to their own people.”
However, beyond propaganda, AI-generated content can cause confusion and panic and inflict real-world harm to people and organizations.
Impair Military Decision-Making
Reality Defender, provider of deepfake detection and synthetic media analysis, supported the Innovation Continuum Cognitive Warfare Experimentation hosted by NATO Allied Command Transformation and NATO Communications and Information Agency in late 2025. During the experimentation, the company injected controlled deepfake content into realistic warfighter scenarios and found that even seasoned operational war planners are susceptible to AI-manipulated media, Biometric Update reported.
The cognitive warfare experimentation explored the impact of AI-driven influences on operational-level decision-making and showed that deepfakes distort perceptions and influence actions.
Gain a deeper understanding of the role of AI in collecting and analyzing intelligence data at the 2026 Intel Summit. Experts from government and industry will join AI-focused panels to examine the potential of the rapidly evolving technology to revolutionize intelligence operations and accelerate decision-making. Register today!
Destroy Trust in Information Systems
The Center for Strategic and International Studies warned that weaponized synthetic media can corrode public trust, undermine the information environment, heighten vulnerabilities to political and economic instability, and impair U.S. capability to defend its national security.
Russia’s use of AI-enabled deception tactics has been shown to negatively impact confidence in information among Ukrainians, with citizens saying that they are more skeptical of digital content online.
Researchers from the Lero research center at University College Cork found in a 2023 study of the prevalence of deepfakes in the Russo-Ukrainian war that some people now question the authenticity of real videos of the conflict, with some falsely claiming actual footage as deepfakes, The Conversation reported.
Adm. Frank Bradley, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, raised concern that adversarial use of AI to deceive might undermine the confidence of military and civilian leaders in digital information and prevent the U.S. from generating the “unity of effort” needed to deter or defend against attacks, Defense One reported.
How the US Government Is Addressing the Issue
The U.S. government is aware of the threat posed by AI-generated or manipulated content and has made investments in technologies to detect falsified media.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency previously launched the Semantic Forensics, or SemaFor, program, which sought the development of technologies that can help determine if content is synthetically generated or manipulated. Since the program’s conclusion in 2024, DARPA said technologies that resulted from the program were transitioned for government or commercial use.
Several agencies also monitor for disinformation threats, including those powered by AI. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Department of War components are involved in identifying, countering and dismantling foreign disinformation activities.
The Cyber National Mission Force under the U.S. Cyber Command partnered with the FBI and agencies from Canada and the Netherlands in 2024 to disrupt the operations of a Russian-sponsored social media bot farm that utilizes AI to create personas and post disinformation online.
DHS Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis Matthew Kozma will keynote the 2026 Intel Summit. He is expected to discuss the threat environment amid conflicts with Iran and other U.S. adversaries, modernization efforts across DHS and the intelligence community, and public-private partnerships in threat detection and mitigation. Grab your tickets today!
