The Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran on Saturday, February 28 and the resulting retaliatory strikes from Tehran saw the outbreak of the world’s newest war last weekend.
On the war’s first day, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated along with other key figures from his regime. While the initial attacks were concentrated in Iran and early retaliations targeted U.S. and Israel-related sites in the Middle East, the conflict quickly widened — with Israel focusing on Lebanon and Iran targeting Gulf states. The impact was soon felt in locations across the region and even further afield.
Just five days in, the impact of AI-generated content and false claims circulating on social media was already being keenly felt. False material was being shared as real, and real images were being incorrectly flagged as false.
The accelerating quality of AI models and the proliferation of AI-generated material in recent months created the perfect conditions for any new war to become a key target for fake material, muddying the waters of what we can trust coming out of a conflict zone.
BBC Verify’s Shayan Sardarizadeh, who has been following and live-posting throughout the war to debunk fakes and verify real footage, said early on March 4 that “this war might have already broken the record for the highest number of AI-generated videos and images that have gone viral during a conflict”.
His daily threads compiling the...
Iranian officials say more than 150 people were killed when an air strike struck a school in Minab, in the country's southern Hormozgan province. With investigations into the incident underway, Fac...