China, Iran, Israeli groups weaponize AI for first-of-their-kind social media influence campaigns

An NYT investigation reveals that state-backed groups in China and Iran, alongside two private Israeli firms, used open-source AI models to create autonomous bots that ran large-scale influence campaigns on social media platforms, marking a first in AI-powered manipulation of online discourse. The campaigns targeted platforms like Instagram, Facebook, X/Twitter, and TikTok, with US officials noting this as a pioneering instance of Chinese AI models handling every stage of an influence operation.

An investigation by The New York Times reveals that state-backed groups in China and Iran, along with two private Israeli firms, used open-source artificial intelligence models to create autonomous software agents that operated thousands of fake social media accounts. These AI agents, built on Chinese open-source models such as DeepSeek, were deployed on platforms including Instagram, Facebook, X/Twitter, and TikTok. US officials told the NYT that this marked one of the first instances of Chinese-produced AI models being used to handle every stage of an online influence campaign — from creating fake accounts to coordinating messaging and framing. The US intelligence community traced the campaigns to state-backed Chinese and Iranian groups, as well as to two private Israeli firms. One of those firms, IntelEye, a Tel Aviv-based company founded by former NSO Group employees, operated roughly 1,000 AI-powered fake accounts to manipulate political discourse around the upcoming Israeli elections. IntelEye disputed the characterization, stating it was conducting defensive research to expose weaknesses in AI systems. Meta said it had removed the vast majority of the AI-powered agents from its platforms. The report comes amid broader warnings from AI leaders about the risks of developing AI too quickly without proper safety measures.