World News
Pro-Israel influence campaign used fake think tank to target AI chatbot outputs, US filings show
US Foreign Agents Registration Act filings reveal a multi-million-dollar Israeli government initiative using contractors to publish content designed for AI citation.
The short version
- A website operating as the Hanover Institute for Public Policy published over 560,000 words across 124 reports formatted to influence AI chatbot responses with pro-Israel arguments.
- US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings show New York media firm Piro Inc registered the initiative as material distributed on behalf of the Israeli government.
- The campaign relies on tens of millions of dollars in Israeli state funding routed through international advertising group Havas Media to various American contractors.
- Internal Israeli government sources have reportedly questioned the effectiveness of these public diplomacy and AI-targeting expenditures amid declining support in US public opinion.
Key facts
- The Hanover Institute website published 124 reports formatted like academic research over nine days in August 2026 before halting new publications.[The Guardian]
- Media production company Piro Inc disclosed the website under FARA as a contractor operating on behalf of the Israeli government.[The Guardian]
- The website initially used files from Res, a commercial generative engine optimization platform designed to make AI models like ChatGPT and Claude cite specific content.[The Guardian]
- Havas Media served as an international intermediary distributing millions of dollars to US contractors, including $15 million to Clock Tower X and nearly $9.9 million to Targeted Communications Global.[The Guardian]
- Israeli government records show advertising agency LaPam awarded Havas entities contracts exceeding $140 million between 2019 and 2023 for international media operations.[The Guardian]
What remains uncertain
- It remains unknown whether the Hanover Institute content will successfully filter into underlying AI dataset repositories like Common Crawl.[The Guardian]
- Public procurement records in Israel do not detail how $24.9 million paid by Havas to American contractors after March 2024 was allocated on the official tender register.[The Guardian]
Sources
- Fake US thinktank set up and funded by Israel sought to game AI for propagandaThe Guardian - World