Navigating Reality and War During the Age of AI Propaganda

On the morning of April 21, Trump posted an image of eight women on Truth Social, claimed they were Iranian dissidents set to be executed, and demanded that Tehran release them. Detractors, and several Iranian sources, claimed the women were AI-generated. A day later Trump claimed the women would no longer be executed and that he’d saved them.

The truth is that the women are real and many are still in danger. Trump’s post made real Iranian women who protested the Iranian regime appear fake. The story speaks to a moment we’re in where it’s become impossible to parse truth from lies online. This was already difficult before AI-generated pictures and video. Now it feels impossible.

On this episode of Angry Planet, Mahsa Alimardani is here to tell us the story. Alimardani is the Associate Director of Technology Threats and Opportunities at WITNESS.

• Eight real women turned into AI propaganda
• Real crimes bastardized into regime propaganda
• “We need to come to terms with the fact that our information environment is structurally different.”
• Content Credentials as a partial solution
• How AI is supercharging our chosen reality tunnels
• The cycle of uprising and repression in Iran
• The structure of Iran’s internet and how its blackouts work
• Domestic intranet as an alternative form of communication
• AI-generated Lego propaganda videos
• Iran Reframed
• Explosive Media’s deep connections to the Islamic Republic
• Politics as fandom, fandom as politics
• “Everything is becoming flattened.”
• “The onus on the person scrolling is a bit unfair.”

Mahsa Alimardani’s LinkedIn

The Real Iranian Women Protesters Trump Made Look Synthetic

In the Room With Iran’s Social Media Savants

How AI Content Detection is Being Weaponized in the Iran War

Iran Is Winning the AI Slop Propaganda War

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