Iran’s AI-Powered Propaganda Campaigns

The conflict between the United States and Iran has expanded into a digital battlefield where artificial intelligence is being used to create competing realities. Alongside traditional military assets, Iran has deployed an AI-generated propaganda campaign involving deepfakes, AI rap, and stylized animations to influence the war narrative.

A central element of this strategy is the production of viral, AI-generated videos featuring Lego-style animations that lampoon the U.S. War effort. These videos, created by an individual identified as Mr. Explosive, use a dynamic and strident style to deliver pro-Iranian messaging and mock Donald Trump.

AI-Generated Military Deception

The campaign has utilized high-fidelity AI content to simulate military successes. One widely shared video depicted missiles striking the USS Abraham Lincoln, showing fighter jets being blasted into the sea and the vessel engulfed in a fireball. The content spread rapidly across social media before being debunked.

Analysis performed with the AI detection tool Hive determined that approximately 99.9% of the content in the video contained AI-generated elements. U.S. Central Command confirmed the footage was false, stating that the USS Abraham Lincoln was not hit and that the missiles launched did not come close to the vessel.

Beyond simulated naval strikes, other AI-powered fakes have targeted urban centers. Fact-checkers from AFP identified images of burning vehicles in Tel Aviv that were actually footage of protests in Tehran from January 2026. Snopes debunked a video claiming to show a new Iranian strike on Tel Aviv, revealing it was recycled footage from June 2025.

Chinese state media also contributed to the information environment by circulating a fake image claiming that Iraqi resistance forces had downed a U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft.

Scale and Velocity of Information Warfare

The volume of AI-generated content has increased since U.S. And Israeli forces launched strikes on Iran on February 28, 2026. The New York Times identified more than 110 distinct AI-generated images and videos within the first two weeks of the conflict.

NewsGuard tracked 50 false claims during the first 25 days of the conflict, averaging two per day. The organization noted that both the volume and the sophistication of these claims continue to climb.

Here’s a propaganda war for them. Their goal is… To troll Trump, influence the war narrative.

Neil Lavie-Driver, AI researcher at the University of Cambridge

The use of AI in this context marks a shift from traditional propaganda to multidimensional information warfare. This approach integrates AI-generated media into a broader strategic communications campaign designed for intimidation and narrative control.

Technical Detection and Verification

The speed at which AI-generated content spreads has created a reliance on specialized detection tools and manual fact-checking to maintain an accurate record of events. The use of tools like Hive allows analysts to identify synthetic elements that are otherwise indistinguishable to the human eye.

The current conflict is characterized as the first real war fought simultaneously on the ground and within competing digital realities, where deepfakes and AI-generated narratives are used as operational tools to shape public perception and disrupt the adversary’s information flow.