Israel-backed fake think tank seeks to steer AI answers on the Gaza conflict
A covert Israeli-funded campaign built a phantom research institute to inject pro-Israel narratives into AI chatbots and search results.
Investigators uncovered an Israeli-sponsored influence scheme that erected the Hanover Institute for Public Policy, a non-existent think tank lacking real scholars or offices. Funding flowed through LaPam, Israel’s state advertising agency, to the New York advertising firm Piro Inc under a $900,000 digital communications contract. Over nine days the site produced more than 560,000 words across 124 reports, each crafted to answer queries likely posed to AI systems and optimized for search-engine visibility.
The material employed statistics, charts and citations to mimic legitimate research while selectively framing evidence. In trials, AI tools such as ChatGPT and Perplexity reproduced the institute’s claims, treating them as factual. The case illustrates how foreign actors can manipulate the algorithmic foundations of public knowledge, raising concerns for AI developers, search platforms and users alike.
Why it matters
It shows how state-backed propaganda can hijack AI tools that many rely on for factual information.
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