On December 14, 2025, a terrorist attack occurred at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, leaving 15 civilians and one gunman dead. While Australia was still reeling in shock, social media saw the rapid spread of misinformation generated and powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI).
For example, a manipulated video of New South Wales Premier Chris Minns claimed one of the terrorists was an Indian national. X (formerly Twitter) was awash with celebrations of the hero defender “Edward Crabtree.” And a deepfake photo of Arsen Ostrovsky, a noted human rights lawyer and survivor of Hamas’ October 7 attack in Israel, depicted him as a crisis actor with makeup artists applying fake blood.
This is an unfortunately common occurrence. From Bondi to Venezuela, Gaza, and Ukraine, AI has supercharged the spread of online misinformation. In fact, around half of the content you see online is now made and spread by AI.
Generative AI can also create fake online profiles, or bots, which try to legitimise this misinformation through realistic-looking social media activity.
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