Israel spending $145mn to manipulate AI to counter criticism amid Gaza genocide: Report

A report says Israel’s 545 million shekels ($145 million) global campaign to counter growing international criticism includes leveraging generative AI systems, such as ChatGPT, to shape information in its favor.

Citing newly filed documents with the US Department of Justice, Ynetnews reported on Monday that Israel’s foreign ministry has launched “one of its most ambitious public diplomacy campaigns” in the United States since the genocidal war in Gaza began, amid declining support for Israel among young Americans.

According to a Gallup poll published in July, only 9% of Americans aged 18 to 34 support Israel’s war in Gaza

According to the documents, which were submitted under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), Israel has contracted the US-based firm, Clock Tower, in an attempt to influence online discourse, including AI platforms such as ChatGPT.

Israel hires US firm to push pro-Israel propaganda via ChatGPT

The Tel Aviv regime has contracted a right-wing firm to target Gen-Z AI and social media users with pro-Israel propaganda.

With the campaign, coordinated through the Government Advertising Bureau and implemented by Havas Media Network, the ministry aims to tailor at least 80% of the content produced for Generation Z audiences across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and podcasts.

The exposure target set in the contract is 50 million monthly impressions, marking an unusually high figure for social media campaigns.

The influence on how AI systems respond to queries about Israel and related topics by Clock Tower is considered “the most controversial” of the plan.

The filings describe an effort to build “websites and content to provide GPT framing results in GPT conversations.”

Clock Tower, led by Brad Parscale, the former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, will create online materials that could influence the data used to train large language models such as ChatGPT, X’s Grok and Google’s Gemini, thereby potentially impacting how these models portray or frame issues related to Israel.

Israel paying influencers $7,000 per post in propaganda campaign: Report

Israel is paying social media influencers up to $7,000 per post as part of a coordinated online propaganda campaign aimed at shaping public opinion.

The Israeli foreign ministry’s contact person listed in the FARA filings is Eran Shiovitz, the ministry’s chief of staff for strategic communication.

Shiovitz leads a broader initiative known as Project 545, which is named after a decision by the Israeli regime to allocate 545 million shekels ($145 million) to Israeli media outreach in 2025.

The campaign also enlists social media influencers.

A new initiative dubbed Project Esther is designed to support a network of US-based influencers who promote pro-Israel content, funded by the Israeli regime. Top Israeli officials are involved in the project, which was developed quietly.

Last week, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the regime is trying to whitewash its genocide in Gaza via social media.

During his meeting with a group of pro-Israel influencers at the Israeli Consulate in New York, Netanyahu was asked how Israel should respond to declining international support, and he said, “We have to fight back. How do we fight? With influencers. They’re very important.”

He added that “the most important weapon today is social media.”

As Netanyahu seeks to shift the narrative, Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza was confirmed by the United Nations last month. The war has so far killed more than 67,160 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children.

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