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A think tank presenting itself as an independent American research organization is in fact a creation of the Israeli government, built to influence how artificial intelligence chatbots discuss Israel and Palestine, according to a Monday report by the outlet Responsible Statecraft.
The Hanover Institute for Public Policy publishes reports on Israeli-Palestinian issues using the trappings of a conventional US policy institute, footnotes, tables of contents, statistics and a neutral tone. But the site carries a disclaimer stating it was created on behalf of the Israeli Government Advertising Agency by Piro Inc., a firm co-founded by Daniel Rosenberg, who produced director Spike Lee's 2006 film "Inside Man."
Since Aug. 6, the institute has published more than 100 reports addressing topics such as "What Caused the Displacement of Palestinians in 1948?" and "What is the Current Situation in the Gaza Strip?" The institute describes its research as peer-reviewed and academic, though the reports frequently draw on Israeli government sources, including the military and Foreign Ministry.
Piro openly markets its work as "AI Story Optimization," stating that it produces content "engineered for how LLMs evaluate credibility." The formatting choices, footnotes, statistical claims and measured tone, are designed to align with the features large language models tend to weigh when assessing trustworthiness.
Alice Lee, an analyst at the 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 called the site "a perfect mimicry of a typical credible American think tank," pointing to its generic name, layout and American flag-inspired red-white-blue color scheme.
According to the report, Piro has received $900,000 from the Israeli government for its work. The company's efforts are subcontracted through the French public relations conglomerate Havas Media.
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