Iran, China, and groups like IntelEye in Israel used swarms of AI agents in novel ways this summer to create first-of-their-kind influence campaigns on social media.
Sadly, this may be the first of many operations like this one
@sheeraf.bsky.social for @nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/t...
nytimes.com
Iran and China Create First-of-Their-Kind Autonomous A.I. Influence Campaigns (Gift Article)
The countries, along with Israeli firms, combined Chinese open-source A.I. models and A.I. agents for the campaigns, foreshadowing future online manipulation.