About this episode
The episode discusses the rise of AI-generated propaganda videos in the context of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.
AI-generated Lego videos have become a tool of war. Since the U.S.-Israel war with Iran began in late February, increasingly elaborate videos featuring LEGO figures and catchy rap lyrics have been flooding our feeds. They're shareable, surprisingly high quality and they're deeply critical of the U.S. and Trump. They're also propaganda. Welcome to the age of "slopaganda" — where AI Slop meets information warfare. Michał Klincewicz, assistant professor of computational cognitive science, joins Morgan to break down the rise of slopaganda, what it's doing to our information ecosystem and why the U.S. is losing the meme war. Guest: Michał Klincewicz, assistant professor of computational cognitive science at Tilburg University. Further Reading/Listening: Slopaganda: The interaction between propaganda and generative AI — Michal Klincewicz, Mark Alfano, and Amir Ebrahimi Fard, Filosofiska Notiser Slopaganda wars: how (and why) the US and Iran are flooding the zone with viral AI-generated noise — Mark Alfano and Michal Klincewicz, The Conversation ‘Vengeance for all’: How Iran’s Lego videos won narrative war against Trump | US-Israel war on Iran News — Alia Chughtai, Al Jazeera The Team…
People in this episode
Host: Morgan
Guest: Michał Klincewicz
Topics covered
- propaganda
- AI
- information warfare
- social media
- U.S.-Iran relations
- meme culture
Keywords
- slopaganda
- AI-generated videos
- LEGO
- information ecosystem
- meme war
- U.S.
- Iran
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: KQED, Tilburg University, Al Jazeera, The New Yorker, Middle East Eye, The Conversation
More episodes of Close All Tabs
- How To Prove You're Not AI · June 10, 2026 · 36 min
- Escaping the Surveillance Pricing Trap · June 3, 2026 · 39 min
- Musk v. Altman Was Peak Silicon Valley Theatrics · May 27, 2026 · 37 min
- How an OnlyFans Model and a Cosplayer Are Fighting Nonconsensual Deepfake Porn · May 13, 2026 · 37 min
- My Therapist Is a Chatbot (Reload) · May 6, 2026 · 32 min
- Somebody’s Watching Me: The Crackdown on Stalkerware · April 29, 2026 · 31 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Close All Tabs podcast page.