Artificial intelligence-enabled slopaganda is a thing, and Iran and the US are using it to great effect in a number of ways to get certain points across.

In the US-Israel war against Iran, I’d say that Iran’s prevailing tactic of engaging audiences around the world with AI slopaganda is ultimately stronger in eliciting emotional responses in support of Iran compared to US President Donald Trump’s use of the same to make him appear stronger, or at least more benevolent, than he actually is.

But what does AI slopaganda do, exactly, and what can we glean from the ongoing and likely continued use of generative AI to push ideas and feelings into people’s minds?

What is AI slopaganda? How’s it being used?

AI slopaganda is the use of AI to create propagandistic “art” (we use art here very loosely) that has been weaponized to paint an entity as stronger-slash-better or an enemy as weaker-slash-worse than it actually is.

In the case of Iran, it tries to position the United States, Israel, and whatever wartime allies they have as horrible warmongers oppressing Iran, with the US and Trump as the primary antagonists. It also tries to position Trump as using the war against Iran as a distraction against his apparent connections to Jeffrey Epstein.

In the case of Trump, however, it’s being used to launder Trump’s reputation and point to him as a king who dumps poop on his detractors, a messiah figure — with regard to his Doctor Jesus AI image and his recent “Jesus hugging Trump” reshare on Truth Social — and as a virile strongman as per his old Trump Digital Trading Cards scheme (at $99 a card, no less).

Oh, and that they’re decimating Iran on a scale beyond imagining, physically and economically.

How powerful is AI slopaganda?

The effectiveness of propaganda made by AI is likely dependent on what’s being shared, what the content is, and who’s sharing it. As long as Big Tech allows such propaganda to exist, it will likely reach millions of people who have access to the right platforms.

Offhand, it would seem Iran has the leg up against Trump on the memetic warfare side.

The messages from pro-Iran outfits like Explosive Media, especially such as those of Iran standing up against America for its various missteps throughout history, are a stark contrast to the self-aggrandizing content coming from Trump’s camp.

Trump, meanwhile, is so focused on himself that Iran’s propaganda against him as an oppressive, lying warmonger rings true to people who are sick of him, whether that was before his blasphemous Doctor Jesus stint or after his AI slop interactions with Christ.

That said, Big Tech giveth and Big Tech taketh away. YouTube has already banned the Iran-supporting AI slopagandists, and Iran is understandably slamming YouTube for the action, according to Al Jazeera.

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei called the ban a move to suppress “the truth” about the US-Israel war against Iran.

Strangely, the videos remain up on, of all places, X — the bastion of Elon Musk-accepted speech.

Of course, it could be argued that AI slopaganda that depicts public figures as “Lego bricks” would ultimately be shut down for infringing on someone’s intellectual property, but then again, if Iran’s supporters are getting the boot, the United States’ use of AI to create its own propaganda — Donald Trump and his supporters most especially — should be under scrutiny too.

A longstanding problem

AI slop is just a part of a longstanding problem, however, and that is the legitimization of lying and propaganda to further a particular end.

In the case of Iran, it’s to position themselves as victims — and only as victims fighting a good fight against an oppressor, even if its government is itself oppressive against people who don’t support it.

In the case of the United States and Trump, it’s the continuing saga of how Trump has allowed reality to fracture around him, so that truth is obscured and everything — including half-truths, lies, and slopaganda — is permitted.

The result, unfortunately, is the shattered and battered reality we’re living in now.

Even as we are pummeled with disinformation, so many things can exist as true at the same time: for instance, that Iran is oppressed by countries stronger than itself even as it is led by an oppressive government; and that the United States is not the bastion of rights and freedoms it used to be because of this active breakdown of what is true and socially just.

While we have to live with the consequences of leaders pushing us one way, the reality of the situation might beg us to also push back against these very same entities — whether it’s bad government anywhere or big emotion-altering tech everywhere — in the pursuit of something more just and, ultimately, better for the least among us, rather than those who have all the power but none of the discernment. – Rappler.com