All throughout 2025, researchers identified an increase in synthetic media AI as creators use sophisticated technology to produce hyper-realistic military figures and digital humans for disseminating influence to make profits through global social media sites.
Synthetic media is moving beyond simply creating fake images and going towards new personas. These synthetic images are created in such a manner that they appear realistic to the viewer.
“We are blending the lines between political cartoons and reality,” Daniel Schiff, an assistant professor at Purdue University, notes the emotional impact of this shift
The technology behind synthetic media production is becoming easier to use, with the internet seeing a wave of these people who don’t exist appearing in uniform or alongside world leaders.
Artificial Digital Soldiers
Experts are concerned about the use of deepfake synthetic media involving women in uniform.
One prominent example featured Jessica Foster, a blonde woman often shown in US military gear. Despite not being a real person, her account gained over a million followers before being removed. The profile used her military-themed images to persuade people to paid platforms, showing how synthetic media AI is often tied to financial benefit.
These accounts often mimic ordinary people rather than known celebrities to build a false sense of relatability. Beyond profit, these tools function as an AI propaganda generator.
In some cases, AI-generated female soldiers have been used in videos related to international conflicts to spread specific narratives, such as the “Habibi, come to Iran” campaign.
AI for propaganda shows how even when images look slightly off – incorrect military badges or unrealistic footwear – they can still be very persuasive.
“They are looking for things that represent their beliefs,” said Sam Gregory, executive director of Witness.
People aren’t necessarily looking for technical perfection, and this effectively turns biased content into AI generated propaganda.
Struggle to Identify and Label AI
According to the Governance and Responsible AI Lab (Grail), there have been more than 1,000 recorded incidents of AI political propaganda in just the first few months of 2025. This is nearly as many as the previous eight years combined.
The volume of this content is growing at an alarming rate through synthetic media production.
“We have made it trivially easy to generate a scene that looks pretty realistic,” said Sam Gregory on the power of synthetic media AI.
The ease of use has led to a blast of content that reinforces existing biases, making it less likely for people to reconsider their views. To fight back, some organizations are developing digital watermarks to help people see where a photo came from and limit the reach of an AI propaganda maker.
Platforms, such as TikTok and YouTube, have promised to label AI content for deepfake targeting, but recent tests show the results are inconsistent. Some platforms only caught a small fraction of any deepfake synthetic media.
According to experts, tech companies must act faster to improve labeling, as AI war propaganda could soon allow for massive, automated AI groups capable of infiltrating communities.
The evolution of synthetic media AI means that these systems can now coordinate autonomously. As synthetic media production becomes more sophisticated, we are seeing the emergence of AI weaponized propaganda that simulates public support without any real humans involved.
“It’s sort of like a troll farm without actually having to have people any more,” says Valerie Wirtschafter, a Brookings Institution fellow.
While the challenge is significant, the message from experts remains clear. Tech companies must act fast to preserve the ability to recognize what is real, as synthetic media AI continues to reshape the landscape of digital information.
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