Those Soldiers Flooding Your Feeds? They Might Not Be Real.
Source: The New York Times
Those Soldiers Flooding Your Feeds? They Might Not Be Real.
Videos generated by artificial intelligence have swarmed social media to exploit public support of U.S. troops for other purposes.
{AI- generated video}
An A.I.-generated video on TikTok that appears to show a U.S. soldier asking viewers to “send a little love our way.”
By Steven Lee Myers
https://www.nytimes.com/by/steven-lee-myers
July 7, 2026, 5:03 a.m. ET
The American soldiers who appeared in a TikTok video last month are handsome, muscular and, inexplicably, shirtless. ... “We’re moving out shortly,” one says, sitting inside what appears to be a troop transport aircraft. “It’s going to be a long one. If you can, just send a little love our way.”
The video is a concoction, generated by artificial intelligence with the goal of enticing viewers to click. It is one of thousands, according to researchers who track them, that have deluged social media with fake images made to look like American service members on duty — at a time when real soldiers have been serving in harm’s way largely out of public view.
The source and the intent are not always obvious, the researchers said. Some, though not all, have been part of foreign influence operations, according to researchers, including accounts that during the war with Iran have circulated propaganda purporting to show American soldiers crying or quaking with fear.
One coordinated network of accounts on TikTok has digital traces to China, according to researchers affiliated with the University of Southern California who discovered it, though the exact purpose is not clear. ... All of them exploit the support that most Americans share for military service, even when the wars themselves are unpopular, as is the one the United States and Israel started with Iran in February. Many draw thousands of likes and comments.
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Steven Lee Myers covers misinformation and disinformation from San Francisco. Since joining The Times in 1989, he has reported from around the world, including Moscow, Baghdad, Beijing and Seoul.
https://www.nytimes.com/by/steven-lee-myers
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/07/business/soldiers-ai-disinformation.html