Fake US Think Tank Funded by Israel Sought to Game AI Chatbots

A fake US think tank, the Hanover Institute for Public Policy, published 124 reports totaling over 560,000 words in nine days to influence AI chatbots on Israel, according to a filing by New York media company Piro Inc under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The site, funded by Israel and routed through Havas Media, targets both live chatbot citations and training data like Common Crawl, with 20 of 124 reports noting no court verdict on genocide or apartheid claims and a 2022 study cited 454 times across 88 reports. Researcher Nick Cleveland-Stout of the Quincy Institute said the site 'succeeds in masquerading as very academic' but that much of it 'makes no sense.'

August 26, 2026 , Inside AI — A website posing as a think tank published 124 reports totaling over 560,000 words in just nine days , aiming to shape what AI chatbots say about Israel. The site, calling itself the Hanover Institute for Public Policy , does not legally exist, has no physical address, and lists no staff. New York media company Piro Inc filed the site with the US Justice Department this month under the Foreign Agents Registration Act FARA , identifying it as material distributed for the Israeli government. The site is one part of a broader effort, financed by tens of millions of dollars from Israel and routed through third parties including European ad group Havas Media , to prime chatbots to make Israel's arguments. A contract between Havas and another American firm commits to the "deployment of websites and content to deliver GPT framing results on GPT conversations." The campaign targets both live chatbot citations and training data repositories like Common Crawl , according to researchers. Fake Think Tank Masks Pro-Israel Spin The Hanover Institute's reports are presented as neutral research, with citations from the World Bank , UN agencies , Amnesty International , and the Genocide Convention . But analysis shows a pattern: the site persistently frames information to blunt criticism of Israel. For example, 20 of 124 reports note that no court has entered a verdict on genocide or apartheid claims. Casualty and aid figures are attributed to "a party to the events," a caveat used in 55 reports and applied to Israeli counts as readily as Palestinian ones. One 2022 study on antisemitic Facebook comments is cited 454 times across 88 reports , including on unrelated topics like land registration and the Gaza death toll. Nick Cleveland-Stout , a research associate at the Quincy Institute , said the site succeeds in masquerading as academic. "It succeeds in masquerading as very academic - the website design, the logos, everything just looks good. But the more you read it, you're able to realise that a lot of it makes no sense," Nick Cleveland-Stout, research associate, Quincy Institute He added that almost every article concludes by suggesting discussion could contribute to antisemitism. "Almost every article concludes with saying, well, just talking about this though could contribute to antisemitism. And it'll throw in the study about Facebook comments in Britain," Nick Cleveland-Stout, research associate, Quincy Institute AI Grooming Pipeline Runs Through Common Crawl The site initially carried a standard llms.txt file from Res , an "AI-native content platform" that sells generative engine optimization. Res founder Hai Tran registered as a subcontractor to Piro on the Israeli account. The file has since been replaced with a bespoke version, and Res is no longer named on the site. Piro's own website advertises AI Story Optimization , authoring content "engineered for how LLMs evaluate credibility." Cleveland-Stout said the more concerning target is training data. "When it regurgitates narratives the chatbot is trained on, it won't even cite the sources. You won't be able to fact-check it," Nick Cleveland-Stout, research associate, Quincy Institute Seven sites run by Clock Tower X , a firm led by former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale , appeared 294 times in Common Crawl's July index. The Hanover Institute does not appear yet, but it is at the start of the same pipeline. Havas is named as intermediary in FARA registrations of five American firms. Justice Department filings record it paying Clock Tower X $15 million and Targeted Communications Global nearly $9.9 million . Havas's own US subsidiary terminated its registration as an agent of Israel in October 2025 , after which the German entity began paying American contractors directly, avoiding disclosure. In Israel, procurement records show government ad agency LaPam awarded Havas entities contracts without tender: $39 million , $29 million , and $17.5 million across 2019 , and $58.3 million in March 2023 . No further award to Havas was found covering the period when Havas paid $24.9 million to American firms. US public opinion polling shows the source of Israeli frustration. Gallup found in February that Americans sympathized more with Palestinians than Israelis for the first time. Pew recorded 60% of Americans holding an unfavorable view of Israel in April, up nearly 20 points since 2022 . An AP-NORC survey found 31% of Americans say Israel's actions in Gaza constitute genocide, rising to 52% of Democrats. Cleveland-Stout doubted any public diplomacy could overcome opposition to Israeli policy. "There is a lack of reflection on the fact that the policies themselves are the ones that are leading to a lot of Americans questioning their support for Israel. They view what is a political problem as a marketing one," Nick Cleveland-Stout, research associate, Quincy Institute He cited the late Israeli politician Yossi Sarid , who joked that "Hasbara is always the refuge of all failures." Cleveland-Stout said the campaign may influence chatbots but not polls. "Parscale is having success in influencing chatbots, and the Hanover Institute is and will continue to have success at influencing the responses that chatbots give. But they're not changing the polls, which is what Israel actually cares about," Nick Cleveland-Stout, research associate, Quincy Institute His wider concern was what the experiment demonstrates. "Whether it's foreign governments, whether it's companies, whether it's even just a guy who owns an ice cream shop - LLM grooming, poisoning, whatever you want to call it, is part of the new reality that we live in," Nick Cleveland-Stout, research associate, Quincy Institute The Israeli foreign ministry has said the state does not conduct "influence operations" in the United States. Piro co-founder Daniel Rosenberg said the firm was retained "to put accurate, sourced facts into the public record and to counter misinformation about Israel with verifiable information."