AI-Generated Persuasion in Conflict: A Study of Israeli Influencers’ Perspective

Abstract

Generative artificial intelligence is increasingly embedded in social media production and circulation, creating new opportunities for persuasive communication while also intensifying concerns about authenticity, manipulation, and misinformation during conflict. This qualitative study draws on semi-structured interviews with eight Israeli social media influencers from different content domains who posted war-related content in the first months of the Israel-Gaza war. Across interviews, AI was framed as an amplifier of emotion, narrative clarity, and virality, but also as a tool that can blur the boundary between persuasion and propaganda. Ethical evaluations were frequently shaped by political alignment, and almost all participants supported stronger transparency-oriented safeguards such as labeling or watermarking, even while questioning their feasibility. The findings position influencers as emerging gatekeepers in conflict communication and illustrate how AI intensifies both expressive capacity and credibility dilemmas. Given the small, context-specific sample and the reliance on self-reported accounts, the study offers exploratory rather than generalizable conclusions, and points to the need for further comparative research and governance frameworks that combine platform accountability with public media literacy.