Fake US thinktank set up and funded by Israel sought to game AI for propaganda
TL;DR
In effort to prime chatbots to make pro-Israel arguments the site published 124 reports, over 560,000 words in nine days, Guardian analysis shows A pro-Israel messaging website badged with the name of a thinktank that does not exist has published more than half a million words in nine days, built on a commercial platform that promises to optimize content so that AI chatbots will cite it. The site gives Israel’s position on subjects including the torture of Palestinian prisoners, Israeli war crimes and whether Israel has deliberately starved Palestinians in Gaza, all presented as neutral research.
Nauti's Take
The case has one upside: it shows in traceable detail for the first time how AI optimization works as a propaganda channel, and that is the basis for any countermeasure. The problem is the economics, because 560,000 words in nine days cost almost nothing while verification costs a lot.
Anyone relying on chatbot answers professionally now needs source checks that identify who is behind the text.
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