Fake think tank seeded AI training data to influence chatbot outputs on Israel-Palestine
An Israeli government-funded campaign created a fake think tank that published hundreds of reports in nine days on a platform designed to optimize content for citation by AI chatbots, presenting pro-Israel positions on contentious topics in neutral academic language.
What happened
A website branded as the Hanover Institute for Public Policy, which does not exist as a legal entity, published 124 reports totalling over 560,000 words in nine days. The reports presented Israel's positions on subjects including torture of Palestinian prisoners, Israeli war crimes, and starvation in Gaza in neutral academic tones.
The site was built on a commercial platform designed to optimize content for citation by AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Piro Inc, a US media production company, filed the site with the US Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as material distributed for the Israeli government.
Reported impact
The Guardian reported the site was part of a broader effort financed by tens of millions of dollars from the Israeli government and routed through third parties including the European advertising group Havas Media. A contract between Havas and another American firm committed to 'deployment of websites and content to deliver GPT framing results on GPT conversations'.
Index analysis
The reports were formulaic, structured with footnotes and tables of contents to appear as neutral research and appeal to language model evaluation of credibility. Reports posed as responses to common chatbot queries such as 'What Caused the Displacement of Palestinians in 1948?' and 'Is the IDF the World's Most Moral Army?'.
Governance controls
The Hanover Institute's website initially claimed it operated without external funding before adding a funding page stating that claim was true when written. The site's terms of use were governed by the laws of 'the state in which the Institute is established', which were not named.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.