Israel Is Running a Synthetic Think Tank to Influence AI Search Results

Since launching just over a month ago, a synthetic Israel-funded think tank called the Hanover Institute for Public Policy has published more than 100 articles. This institute, run by American advertising firm Piro Inc and supported by Israel, aims to generate content for large language models (LLMs) that scan the internet to shape their responses. The goal is to influence chatbot answers in favor of Israel.

Every few days, the Hanover Institute releases around a dozen articles on topics related to Israel, antisemitism, and Palestine. These articles feature question-style headlines and often include graphs and citations from real sources, though they do not link to the sources themselves. The questions posed in the articles, such as "How Much Palestinian Land Has Israel Taken?" "Why Is Israel Seen as the Aggressor?" and "Is There a Policy of Starvation in Gaza?", often result in convoluted and nonsensical answers.

The absence of bylines on these articles is explained as a convention at institutional publishers, intended to allow readers to focus on the sources rather than individual authors. However, the site's about page notes that accountability for the material remains with the registrant responsible for distributing it, named in the disclosure on each page and in filings with the Department of Justice.

The researchers themselves remain unnamed, reflecting the institute's editorial stance that findings should be judged solely on their sources, not the person who compiled them, especially given the contentious nature of the subject matter.

AI detection tools have identified that three articles tested were entirely generated by AI, with the only human involvement being the creation of bibliographies. The images accompanying the articles are also AI-generated. These articles appear to be crafted not only by AI but also with the intent of influencing AI responses. The site includes an llms.txt file, designed to facilitate the scraping of the website by AI models, and lists Piro as the entity responsible for distributing content, which advertises services to optimize AI storytelling.

Piro's co-founder, Daniel Rosenberg, explained their approach on LinkedIn, describing how their services help brands ensure AI understands and accurately represents their narratives. "Every day, more buying journeys begin with an AI conversation instead of a Google search," he stated. "We spent the last year learning how AI models discover, evaluate, and synthesize information across the web... We call it AI Story Optimization."

The website also outlines the broader strategy behind their work: "Search is no longer about keywords. It’s about story. About trust. Not only the trust of a language model deciding whether to cite you, but the trust of the actual human being reading that answer and deciding whether to buy." They highlight the dual audience—AI and human readers—and emphasize the importance of shaping how AI understands and explains a brand’s narrative through strategic communications and media relations.

Registered as a foreign agent with the United States government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), Hanover is involved in activities intended to educate the U.S. public about Israel and related issues, including the creation and dissemination of factual materials. FARA paperwork reveals that Piro is collaborating with Israel’s official advertising agency, LaPam, to provide strategic communications and media relations services.

Piro has also uploaded copies of its articles to FARA’s website, confirming their political nature and aligning with the goal of shaping public opinion in the United States.