Israel has created a fictitious think tank as part of an effort to shape how artificial intelligence chatbots respond to users, according to an investigation published Monday by Responsible Statecraft.
The fictitious "Hanover Institute for Public Policy” presents itself as a U.S.-style research organization producing reports on Israel and Palestine, but the institute is not an independent think tank, the report said.
A disclaimer on its website says it was created on behalf of the Israeli Government Advertising Agency by Piro Inc., a firm co-founded by Daniel Rosenberg, the producer of U.S. director Spike Lee’s 2006 movie Inside Man.
The institute has published more than 100 reports since Aug. 6, covering questions such as "What Caused the Displacement of Palestinians in 1948?” and "What is the Current Situation in the Gaza Strip?”
Its reports use footnotes, tables of contents, statistics, and a neutral tone, characteristics that can make online material more appealing to AI systems. Piro describes its services as "AI Story Optimization,” saying it produces content "engineered for how LLMs evaluate credibility,” referring to AI’s large language models.
Alice Lee, an analyst at disinformation-tracking firm NewsGuard, told Responsible Statecraft that the sites appear designed to reach Americans through search engines and AI chatbots.
"LLMs favor concrete statistics and data, as well as strong citations and sources, which these articles all have,” Lee said.
She described the site as "a perfect mimicry of a typical credible American think tank,” citing its generic name, layout, and American flag red-white-blue color scheme.
The institute says its cited research is peer-reviewed and academic, although its reports frequently cite Israeli government sources, including the military and Foreign Ministry.
Piro has received $900,000 from the Israeli government for its work, according to the report. The company’s work is subcontracted through French public relations conglomerate Havas Media.
