BBCPERSIAN — broadcast
20260808 233000 UTC
121 transcript segments
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Machine transcription. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a verbatim quotation record.

[00:23:20] Simultaneously with the real war that has been going on in different cities of Iran and several other
[00:23:23] involved countries, another war has been happening in the
[00:23:27] virtual space, a war between fake and
[00:23:31] real, a war between doubt about visual documents and
[00:23:35] trust in them. Especially Ali Mardani at the Witness Institute has been working
[00:23:38] on this danger of artificial intelligence for a long time. This
[00:23:42] war that has been going on in Iran and several other countries in the region
[00:23:46] has coincided with the availability of artificial intelligence
[00:23:50] tools. Perhaps it can be said that this is the first major war and the biggest
[00:23:54] war we have witnessed since the popularization of artificial intelligence.
[00:23:57] Now, the access and quantity of
[00:24:00] artificial intelligence content have increased much more
[00:24:03] than that other war, which we were talking about. It seems that the investment of both sides
[00:24:07] of the war or several sides of the war
[00:24:10] in these tools has also increased. Look, whenever
[00:24:13] there has been war in the history of our world,
[00:24:17] we have always seen propaganda from all sides.
[00:24:21] Now, this propaganda with artificial
[00:24:24] intelligence has another effect, and
[00:24:27] we have really reached a point where it is very difficult
[00:24:31] for ordinary people to distinguish what
[00:24:34] is real and what is not real.
[00:24:38] We see that very believable content
[00:24:41] is being created. When a user sees such content
[00:24:45] that is so convincing, what can be expected of them?
[00:24:49] It has become
[00:24:54] very difficult, and we are seeing that when
[00:24:58] you talk to very professional journalists
[00:25:01] and people who
[00:25:04] do fact-checking professionally,
[00:25:07] everyone is saying that the number
[00:25:10] has increased so much and its realism has also increased
[00:25:14] that it has become very difficult, and there is a great need
[00:25:17] for responsibility by those who have power in
[00:25:21] this space, regarding AI models that generate content, and to
[00:25:25] implement transparency systems within the model itself.
[00:25:28] Now, we don't see companies saying that they are trying to
[00:25:32] label and
[00:25:35] do different things in a way that
[00:25:38] the discussion takes place, it's not possible and it's not enough, meaning it's not
[00:25:41] enough, that information about the reality
[00:25:45] of content as soon as
[00:25:48] lies spread in the virtual space. You don't see
[00:25:52] lies spreading faster. Lies not only spread faster, but
[00:25:56] they also have more buyers than
[00:25:59] reality, because some people are waiting to believe that
[00:26:02] false or fabricated content. That's exactly how it is.
[00:26:06] We all have our own beliefs, and when
[00:26:10] a piece of content,
[00:26:12] a fake one, matches our beliefs, it's easier to accept it.
[00:26:16] And in the toxic environment we
[00:26:20] see in Iran, we ourselves know that this toxic information
[00:26:23] environment has been created by the Islamic Republic for 47 years,
[00:26:27] before and after the internet, to control information,
[00:26:31] through media or through the internet. And it's
[00:26:34] such that any information that comes out of
[00:26:38] Iran, if it's somehow described as being
[00:26:41] against the regime itself, we can easily understand why
[00:26:45] people don't believe it. But in this kind
[00:26:48] of situation where there's a war and people are in danger,
[00:26:52] not knowing what is real
[00:26:55] and what is not real can really endanger people's
[00:26:59] lives. That people are in danger.
[00:27:11] I am an Iranian in Iranian society and I see
[00:27:14] how my surroundings always ask
[00:27:17] me, "Is this true? What should we believe? Did they really hit
[00:27:21] this building? Are they really killing civilians?"
[00:27:25] In this human rights work, we are always
[00:27:28] looking for documents to record crimes
[00:27:32] against human rights. It has become very difficult,
[00:27:36] especially in this environment where everyone doubts
[00:27:39] our documents. We are now in the middle of this war, several
[00:27:43] moments after one of the most unprecedented
[00:27:45] moments in Iranian history,
[00:27:49] where thousands of people were killed by the Islamic
[00:27:53] Republic, and the information environment at that
[00:27:55] time, access to documents of those crimes
[00:27:59] was very difficult because of
[00:28:03] the actions taken by the Islamic Republic, such as internet outages,
[00:28:06] threats to the families of those killed, arrests
[00:28:09] of people who were filming, meaning from all aspects they were
[00:28:13] censoring our access to documents.
[00:28:16] Now we are in a situation where civilians
[00:28:20] are dying in this war, and the Islamic Republic
[00:28:24] is making every effort to ensure that we have access to
[00:28:27] documents, meaning through the government
[00:28:31] and government media, they are sending photographers.
[00:28:34] It is understandable that
[00:28:37] people doubt this content.
[00:28:40] This doubt has now intensified because
[00:28:44] of artificial intelligence. In this environment where people themselves cannot publish
[00:28:47] content, how much do these internet outages and
[00:28:51] preventing people's access to publishing content affect
[00:28:54] people going to artificial intelligence and similar tools
[00:28:58] to doubt any content that comes out? Israel is a very
[00:29:02] big factor in this space,
[00:29:05] and it knows what kind of
[00:29:08] content Iranians, who dislike the Islamic Republic, know
[00:29:11] that such content has buyers, and in a place where
[00:29:15] we cannot hear the real voice of the Iranian people,
[00:29:17] this content can easily take its
[00:29:21] place and be believable. We saw some content
[00:29:24] that from Ekbatan building,
[00:29:28] they had projected the flag of Israel with light
[00:29:31] on the building. And we easily realized
[00:29:35] that it was made with artificial intelligence. But look,
[00:29:39] in an environment where the Islamic Republic is silencing
[00:29:42] the voice of the Iranian people, such content has buyers,
[00:29:46] right? And this way, we see that artificial intelligence is taking the place
[00:29:49] of these outages and censors in this way,
[00:29:53] meaning internet outages and censorship that is now being imposed on people.
[00:29:57] The general Iranian public here is also harming
[00:30:01] the image that Iranians can see of what is happening in their country.
[00:30:04] Exactly in this environment, we see, for example, a
[00:30:08] country like Israel can take the place
[00:30:11] of this content with fake content.
[00:30:43] Multiple reports of a significant decrease in US
[00:30:47] weapon stockpiles and Washington's denial. Has the shortage
[00:30:51] of missiles and missile defense systems changed Trump's strategy
[00:30:54] against a war with Iran? Let's see
[00:30:58] Ukraine. Is what they say really true?