Fact Check Team: How AI agents can run foreign influence campaigns across social media

WASHINGTON (TNND) — Artificial intelligence is changing how foreign influence campaigns can operate online — allowing some actors to automate tasks that previously required large numbers of people.

A recent report from The New York Times found that Iran and China, along with private Israeli companies, have used AI agents in novel social media influence campaigns. The technology allowed agents to perform multiple steps of an operation, including creating accounts, generating posts and coordinating activity across platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok.

AI-generated content and fake online personas are not new. U.S. officials have previously warned that foreign actors, including Iran, have used generative AI and inauthentic personas in attempts to influence Americans and sow discord. What researchers say is different about these newer campaigns is the degree of automation.

How does an AI influence campaign work?

AI agents are software systems that can complete a series of tasks with less direct human involvement.

According to The New York Times, hundreds of AI agents were used in some of the newly identified campaigns. They created networks of fictitious accounts, generated political and current-events content and coordinated messages online.