View the full episode transcript.
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, 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, 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 Behind a Pro-Iran, Lego-Themed Viral-Video Campaign — Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker
- YouTube removes pro-Iran channel producing anti-Trump videos — Alex MacDonald, Middle East Eye
- ‘We want the mullahs gone’: economic crisis sparks biggest protests in Iran since 2022 — Deepa Parent and William Christou, The Guardian
Want to give us feedback on the show? Shoot us an email at CloseAllTabs@KQED.org
Follow us on Instagram and TikTok
