This course will examine the ways in which AI is transforming media production and communications, along with its current and potential role in strategic misinformation, deception and manipulation. The course will cover classic work and emerging research on deception and manipulation. We will spend the first part of the semester examining how AI is being used to generate media, including the creation and use of deepfakes, and the role of AI in targeted marketing and surveillance capitalism more generally. The second half of the semester will examine why mis- and disinformation are successful, in terms of both cognitive biases and the socio-technical media infrastructure, as well as the potential for applying AI to increasingly sophisticated psychological micro-targeting, and large-scale media manipulation. This will include an examination of the socio-psychological dimensions of deception, coercion and manipulation among humans, and its potential automation and amplification with AI. Throughout the semester we will return to questions of how these technologies impact or advance social justice, economic and political equality, and what it means to engage with them through ethical practice.