As tensions flare in the Middle East, a flood of fake videos and AI-generated images is spreading confusion and fueling heated debates far from the actual battlefields of Iran and Israel.
Experts warn that a wave of deepfakes, video game clips passed off as real footage, and misleading chatbot answers is muddying the facts and leaving millions unsure of what to believe.
After Iran’s recent missile strikes targeting Israel, social media feeds were swamped with dramatic clips supposedly showing devastation in Tel Aviv and at Ben Gurion Airport. Fact-checkers later revealed that many of these viral videos came from AI content creators on TikTok, not war correspondents on the ground.
Ken Jon Miyachi, founder of BitMindAI, says the conflict has become a test case for how quickly generative AI can twist reality. “These tools are being used to shape public perception in real time, creating highly believable false stories that are hard to debunk fast enough,” he told AFP.
US-based GetReal Security, a firm that hunts fake media, traced many recent clips to Google’s Veo 3 AI tool — known for creating ultra-realistic visuals. Some misleading videos even carried the Veo watermark but were still widely shared by news sites and social media accounts presenting them as genuine scenes of destruction.
“The more realistic these tools become, the easier it is for bad actors to spread fake news and stir panic,” said Hany Farid, co-founder of GetReal Security and a professor at UC Berkeley. He warned that short, eight-second AI clips are particularly common and urged viewers to think twice before reposting them.
Meanwhile, disinformation watchdog NewsGuard found over 50 websites pushing phony claims about the conflict — from fake photos of bombed-out neighborhoods to stories about Iranian forces capturing Israeli pilots. Many of these stories, researchers say, were amplified by Iranian state-backed outlets trying to control the narrative at home.
Adding to the confusion, popular AI chatbots like Grok have mistakenly flagged some fake images as authentic, showing how even digital fact-checkers can be fooled by convincing fakes.
“This is a wake-up call for all of us,” Miyachi said. “We need stronger detection tools, better media literacy, and tech platforms that take responsibility for what they let spread.”
As the fighting rages on, experts fear the battle over the truth could last even longer than the fighting on the ground — with real-world consequences for trust, safety and global stability.
