A REVIEW OF AI-POWERED DISINFORMATION STRATEGIES: THE CASES OF RUSSIA, CHINA, IRAN, AND NORTH KOREA

This study analyzes how AI-powered disinformation campaigns are organized on a global scale and for what strategic purposes state actors carry out them. Within the scope of the research, AI-based disinformation activities carried out by Russia, China, Iran and North Korea between 2023 and 2024 were examined in line with OpenAI's "Threat Intelligence Report" document. Systematic literature review and qualitative document analysis were used together as methods. The campaigns were evaluated through major language models, deepfake technologies, automatic commenting systems and fake media sites used in content production. The findings of the research show that each country's disinformation strategy differs both technologically and politically. While Russia and China focus more on social media interaction and public opinion manipulation, Iran focuses on ideological content production, and North Korea focuses on direct cyber attacks. Despite the high production capacity of content produced with AI tools, it has been observed that these campaigns have limited impact on real users. It was determined that no campaign exceeded 2 points in the "Breakout Scale" assessment used by OpenAI. This study reveals the effects of artificial intelligence on information security, media algorithms and digital sovereignty; it emphasizes the necessity of not only technical but also ethical and legal approaches in the fight against disinformation.