Israel launches campaign to influence AI responses on Gaza

Israel has launched a new campaign aimed at influencing the responses of artificial intelligence models, such as ChatGPT, regarding the war in Gaza and the image of the Israeli military, following a decline in its reputation among Western audiences, particularly in the United States.

According to a report by Politico, Israel enlisted the French public relations firm Havas Media, which manages most of Israel's foreign influence operations, to establish the "Hanover Institute for Public Policy" through the advertising agency Piro.

The report stated that the campaign, valued at $100,000, focused on preparing and publishing positive informational materials about Israel targeted at the American public. More than 12 articles were published on the institute's website, none of which listed author names.

The articles addressed topics such as the ethics of the Israeli military and policies related to starvation in Gaza, with the aim of feeding large AI models with this data.

The report noted that models like ChatGPT and Perplexity have already begun citing content from the Hanover Institute in their answers about Gaza, anti-Zionism, and antisemitism, according to tests conducted by Politico.

The website discloses that its materials are distributed by Piro on behalf of Havas Media Germany, which acts for the Israeli government advertising agency LaPam.

Politico also revealed that the website was created or hosted by Seattle-based AI startup Res, which provides services to clients such as Nike and Intel.

A duplicate version of the institute's homepage was removed from the Res website after Politico contacted the company.

Israel has previously worked with the Havas network on influence campaigns targeting chatbots, contracting last year with Brad Parscale, the former campaign manager for US President Donald Trump, for a $46.5 million campaign.

According to Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings, the campaign included publishing content intended to influence GPT model outputs.

Daniel Rosenberg, co-founder of Piro, confirmed that the contract with Israel aims to include accurate and documented facts in the public record and to counter misinformation with verifiable information.

Politico noted that Piro's filings did not explicitly mention influencing AI models as a direct objective of the campaign.

Meanwhile, Hai Tran, founder and CEO of Res, stated that his company's role in the project is disclosed in a short-form registration filed with the US Department of Justice.