A campaign aimed at increasing the visibility of pro-Israel content in responses generated by artificial intelligence tools, including ChatGPT, is under way in the United States, according to a Politico investigation and documents filed with the US Department of Justice.
At the centre of the report is the Hanover Institute for Public Policy, a website that publishes dozens of reports on Gaza, the Israeli military, anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
Many of the articles do not identify authors and are framed as questions, including whether there is a policy of starvation in Gaza and whether the Israeli military is "the most moral army in the world".
The website states that its content is distributed by the US advertising company Piro on behalf of Havas Media Germany, which acts for Israel's state advertising agency, LaPam.
According to documents cited by Politico, more than a dozen Hanover Institute articles form part of a $100,000 campaign designed to create and distribute information about Israel to US audiences.
Content appears designed for AI visibility
The Piro documents do not explicitly state that influencing large language models is the campaign's objective.
However, according to Politico, the format and structure of the content appear designed to be easily identified and used by AI systems.
In tests cited by the publication, both ChatGPT and Perplexity referenced material from the Hanover Institute when answering neutral questions about Gaza, anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
The report notes, however, that this does not prove the models were trained on the material or that their overall outputs have been influenced by the campaign.
Links to AI optimisation services
Politico also reported that technical evidence suggests the Hanover Institute website was created or hosted with the assistance of Res, a Seattle-based artificial intelligence company.
The company offers services intended to help organisations appear more frequently in AI-generated answers and recommendations.
A copy of the Hanover Institute homepage was previously hosted on Res's website but was reportedly removed after Politico contacted the company for comment.
Previous AI-related campaigns
According to the report, this is not the first time companies within the Havas network have worked on campaigns related to how Israel is represented by AI systems.
In 2025, Havas contracted Clock Tower X, a firm founded by former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, for a $46.5 million influence campaign on behalf of Israel.
Documents filed under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) explicitly referred to creating websites and content intended to influence the information environment from which GPT-style systems generate responses.
By contrast, the documents relating to Piro do not explicitly mention influencing large language models.
Response from those involved
Piro co-founder Daniel Rosenberg told Politico that the company had been hired by Israel to publish what he described as "accurate and factual information" and to combat misinformation about the country.
Havas Media, the Hanover Institute, LaPam and the Israeli embassy did not respond to requests for comment, according to the report.
Source: Politico
