Generative AI is casting a long shadow of doubt in war, as conflict actors increasingly use the technology to pass real atrocities off as fabrications, and depict faked evidence as real.
Mahsa Alimardani and Afsaneh Rigot explore how governments and other actors weaponize doubt to spread propaganda and erode accountability. They show how in Iran the worst-case consequences have already materialized, with warring parties exploiting the information environment for political gain.
Yet despite immense risk, the people targeted by these lies keep working to make the truth believable. There is no silver bullet to end wartime denialism, but the space for it can be narrowed if the problem is treated as one of witnessing as well as content.
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