Israel Creates Fake Think Tank to Influence AI Chatbots
Original: Israel creates fake think tank in likely attempt to dupe AI chatbots
Why This Matters
State-sponsored 'LLM poisoning' marks a new frontier in AI-era information warfare targeting chatbot outputs.
A website called the Hanover Institute for Public Policy, created by Piro, Inc. on behalf of the Israeli Government Advertising Agency, has published over 100 reports in roughly one week in what analysts say is a deliberate effort to shape AI chatbot responses on Israel-Palestine topics.
The Hanover Institute for Public Policy presents itself as a neutral think tank covering Israel-Palestine issues, but a disclaimer on its website reveals it was created by Piro, Inc.—co-founded by filmmaker Daniel Rosenberg—on behalf of the Israeli Government Advertising Agency. None of its reports carry bylines. Piro's own website states it 'authors content engineered for how LLMs evaluate credibility,' marketing the service as 'AI Story Optimization,' a practice critics call 'LLM poisoning.' The institute has published at least 100 articles in just over one week, each structured like academic reports—complete with footnotes, tables of contents, and neutral language—to appeal to AI systems such as Claude and Gemini. Topics mirror common chatbot queries: 'What Caused the Displacement of Palestinians in 1948?' and 'Is Israel Carrying out a Deliberate Campaign of Starvation in Gaza?' Many reports link their conclusions to antisemitism, frequently citing identical studies. Notably, some publications contradict official Israeli government positions. Alice Lee, an analyst at disinformation tracker NewsGuard, told Responsible Statecraft the sites appear designed to reach U.S. audiences via search engines and AI chatbots.