The AI-Sexualisation of extremist propaganda in the cyber-social ecosystem

• In Event: EXTREME Panel 2. Extremism in a changing landscape

Abstract

The rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has transformed extremist propaganda, introducing new strategies, dynamics and mechanisms of information manipulation, radicalisation, and disinformation. Among these, sexualization has emerged as a powerful tool, weaponizing human desires, gender stereotypes, and erotic imagery to reinforce ideological narratives, influence audiences, and weaponized people. The body has become a battlefield, digitally manipulated to shape perceptions of gender, morality, and political identity. AI-generated images and narratives redefine traditional propaganda by embedding hyper-sexualized aesthetics into extremist discourse, using eroticized figures to symbolize purity, martyrdom, or moral corruption. The author explores the role of AI-sexualisation of extremist propaganda in Cognitive Warfare (CW), and its intersection with other phenomena such as the spread of Online Hate and the normalization of gender-based violence.

Author

• Arije Antinori, Sapienza University of Rome