AI Fake Images Turn Israeli Election Campaign Ugly
AI-generated smears are making elections nastier — and it could happen here.
Days before close-fought Israeli elections, campaigns have gone into overdrive with poor-taste jibes and inflammatory attacks against candidates, sometimes crossing red lines. Fuelled in part by a boom in AI-generated images flooding social media, candidates and activists are seeking to portray opponents as weak, untrustworthy or damaging for the country, playing on stereotypes and fears to sway public opinion.
The electioneering has at times turned personal: some candidates who lost loved ones in the wars following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack have had their bereavement dragged into the campaign. Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, polls show Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc neck and neck with that of his main centre-right rival Gadi Eisenkot.
- AI-generated images are being used to smear political opponents in Israel's election.
- The attacks have become personal, even targeting candidates who lost loved ones in war.
- The election is very close, so these fake images could sway voters and affect the result.
Why It Matters
AI fakes can swing close elections and make it harder to know what's true.