The Jerusalem Post, Quartz · 6 sourcesThe Jerusalem Post · 6 sources · 6 reports · Iranian, Chinese and Israeli companies accused of using AI agents to run influence operations
A New York Times investigation shows that China, Iran, and two private Israeli companies used downloadable modified Chinese open-source AI models to create AI agents that autonomously registered fake accounts in bulk on Instagram, Facebook, X/Twitter and TikTok and posted disinformation on politics and current events. U.S. officials said this is the first time AI agents built on Chinese-made models have been used to cover the full pipeline of an influence operation, from account creation to coordinated messaging; the open-source models were modified by developers to bypass the platforms' identity verification and anti-manipulation guardrails. Investigators determined that the Chinese and Iranian operations had government support, while the two Israeli operations were linked to private companies.
