Report: Israel runs AI-powered covert US political influence campaign
The Israeli government allegedly orchestrated a covert influence campaign targeting US lawmakers and the public to garner support for Israel's military actions in Gaza. Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs reportedly allocated around USD 2 million for a campaign to disseminate pro-Israel messages and urge US Congress members, particularly prominent Black Democrats, to finance Israeli military initiatives , and hired Israeli marketing firm Stoic to run it. Hundreds of fake social media accounts impersonating Americans were created and populated shortly after Hamas' attack on Israel on Otober 7, 2023, using content generated by OpenAI's ChatGPT . Meta identified and removed over 500 fraudulent Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to the campaign, many of which impersonated real individuals like Jewish students, African Americans, and concerned citizens in order to appear authentic. OpenAI also reported disrupting an Israeli operation codenamed "Zero Zeno" that misused its AI tools for generating articles and comments across platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The Israeli government denied any involvement in the campaign. However, investigative and media reports cited internal documents and government sources as evidence of Israel's role. The finding underscored concerns about Israel's use of AI for political and military purposes in its ongoing battles with Hamas and other organisations. System 🤖 ChatGPT Documents 📃 OpenAI. Disrupting deceptive uses of AI by covert influence operations Meta. Adversarial threat report - First quarter 2024 Operator: Israel Ministry of Diaspora Affairs; Stoic Developer: OpenAI Country: Isr ael; USA Sector: Politics Purpose: Manipulate public opinion Technology: Chatbot Issue: Mis/di si nform ation; Transparency Investigations, assessments, audits 🧐 FakeReporter (2024). Pro-Israeli Influence Network - New Findings
- Date it happened
- 2023-10-01
- Organisation involved
- Israel Ministry of Diaspora Affairs; Stoic
- Product, system or model
- ChatGPT
This incident was imported from AIAAIC and is used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Our additions to it — the structured fields, the translation, the checks against other reports — are published under the same licence.
This is a record of what was reported, not a finding that anyone broke the law. If it names your organisation and you believe it is wrong, the corrections process is free and open to everyone.