Israel is spending more than $1.5 billion on a project that strategically uses ChatGPT, influencers, and social media to shape pro-Israel narratives online.
According to documents filed under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), Israel’s Foreign Ministry has launched one of its most ambitious public relations campaigns in the US since the massive bloodbath in Gaza began.
The campaign, coordinated by the State Advertising Agency and implemented through Havas Media Network, is targeting digital channels. The goal is for at least 80% of the campaign’s content to be tailored to Gen Z across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and podcasts, with an exposure target of 50 million views per month.
The documents also reveal that Israel has hired a US firm, Clock Tower, to influence online discourse, including how generative artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT talk about Israel.
The most controversial part of the plan is that Clock Tower will attempt to manipulate how AI systems respond to questions about Israel and related topics. According to the documents, they aim to develop and distribute websites and digital content that control context, thereby creating a form of “framing” for GPT conversations.
In short, they aim to create material that can be integrated into the training and knowledge base of AI models, thereby influencing how these systems present and interpret topics such as Israel, Gaza, genocide, and war crimes.
This is called GEO – Generative Engine Optimization: shaping content so that artificial intelligence responds the way you want it to. An attempt to make machines “think right”.
The project is launched at the same time as support for Israel among young Americans is falling. When Netanyahu was recently asked how the country should respond to its declining support internationally, he replied:
“We have to fight back. How do we fight? With influencers. They are very important.”
“The most important weapon today is social media.”
Paying influencers and designing content to influence how AI models respond about Gaza or Israel is digital warfare disguised as innovation.
This is a warning to us all: When states start to “optimize” the truth, we lose trust in everything.
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