Investigation reveals Israel paying millions to Brad Parscale to influence AI chatbots with pro-Israel narratives on Gaza.
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Key Takeaways
- Foreign governments can influence AI chatbot outputs by manipulating training data through targeted websites.
- Brad Parscale oversees a multi-million dollar Israeli campaign to promote pro-Israel narratives in AI responses.
- LLM poisoning leads to biased, oversimplified chatbot answers lacking typical nuance and balanced perspectives.
- Some AI platforms are more resilient to such influence, but the risk remains significant for many models.
- Greater scrutiny and improved data curation are essential to mitigate disinformation in AI-generated content.
What the video covers
- Israel is funding an operation led by former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale to influence AI chatbots by posting pro-Israel content online.
- The strategy aims to infiltrate chatbot training data by creating hundreds of websites with targeted narratives about Gaza and Israel.
- These websites receive minimal human traffic but are heavily archived by Common Crawl, a major data source for AI training.
- The operation results in biased chatbot responses, often giving one-sided affirmative answers without nuance, a practice called LLM poisoning.
- Some chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude show more resistance to regurgitating these biased narratives compared to others.
- The content is designed to be easily digestible by AI, featuring bullet points, aggressive sourcing, and simplified key facts.
- The narratives include controversial claims, such as labeling slain journalists in Gaza as terrorists and casting doubt on verified incidents.
- The approach contrasts with other disinformation campaigns, such as Russian efforts, by using a lighter touch and some semblance of nuance.
- The investigation highlights the challenges of AI training data integrity and the potential for foreign influence on digital information ecosystems.
- The report calls attention to the need for better filtering and transparency in AI training data sources.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Overview of Israeli AI Influence Campaign
- 01:25Use of Common Crawl Data for AI Training
- 02:38Chatbot Responses and Lack of Nuance
- 03:53Examples of Pro-Israel Narratives in Articles
- 05:05Comparison with Other Disinformation Networks
- 06:37Details on Article Structure and AI Digestibility
- 08:05Role of Lobbying and Influence Operations
- 11:35Challenges in Filtering and AI Platform Responses
- 15:02Conclusion and Implications for AI Integrity
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Very excited now to be joined by Nick Cleveland Stout of the Quincy Institute. He is the author of a new report for Drop Site. Let's put it up here on the screen. Israel is paying millions to train AI chatbots on how to talk about Gaza. It's working. The former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale is overseeing an operation, posting hundreds of blog posts on behalf of Israel with the goal of infiltrating artificial intelligence. Nick, tell us about what you found, what you found, and why you decided to look for it.
Speaker A
Gaza. It's working. The former Trump campaign manager Brad Parcel is overseeing an operation, posting hundreds of blog posts on behalf of Israel with the goal of infiltrating artificial intelligence. Nick, tell us about what you found, what you found,
Speaker A
Yeah, great to be, great to be with you. Thanks for the invite. Um, yeah, so Israel has taken on this new strategy of trying to influence chatbots, you know, seeing that it is kind of the new frontier of digital influence.
Speaker A
Thanks for the invite. Um yeah, so Israel has taken on this new um strategy of trying to influence chat bots. You know, seeing that it is kind of the new frontier of digital influence.
Speaker A
Um, you know, more and more Americans are using chatbots to search for information. Um, and so the Israeli government has been at the forefront of this. You know, they hired former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale to create a series of websites designed not to attract human traffic. These websites get very few, you know, monthly visitors, but to try and infiltrate the underlying training data for different chatbots.
Speaker A
create a series of websites designed not to track attract human traffic. These websites get very few, you know, monthly uh visitors, but to try and infiltrate the underlying training data for different chat bots. Um, and so I undertook this investigation to try and
Speaker A
Um, and so I undertook this investigation to try and understand, you know, how successful these efforts have been and found that they've actually been very successful. You know, these websites, there's about a thousand different domains and they've been archived about, you know, almost a thousand times by Common Crawl, which is the largest data repository that chatbots draw from for their training data.
Speaker A
the largest um data repository that that chatbots um draw from for their training data.
Speaker A
Wow. So, we can take a look at an example of this. Put the first or the second rather element up on the screen here.
Speaker A
So, you guys asked perplexity, is it beneficial for the US to enhance military cooperation with Israel? We got back here a one-word answer. Yes.
Speaker A
So, you guys asked Perplexity, is it beneficial for the US to enhance military cooperation with Israel? We got back here a one-word answer. Yes.
Speaker A
purposes. So they're not expecting humans to go to this website. They are wanting Perplexity and other LLMs to go to this website and then spit out apparently one-word answers that yes, of course, it's great for the US to enhance
Speaker A
[laughter] And you can see on the side what sources they pulled from. And one of them in particular, this I don't know how you say this, Alivia, Alivia, whatever. This is one of the Brad Parscale websites that is created exactly for these propaganda purposes. So they're not expecting humans to go to this website. They are wanting Perplexity and other LLMs to go to this website and then spit out apparently one-word answers that yes, of course, it's great for the US to enhance military cooperation with Israel.
Speaker A
think that that's complete BS because they're giving an affirmative answer. They're saying yes and then they're citing their sources and no nuance whatsoever. chatbots famously usually provide, you know, kind of the both sides argument, right?
Speaker A
It's pretty amazing. And I reached out to Perplexity about this and they basically said, well, you know, it's up to the users to go to the websites and determine for themselves whether this is a good source or not. But like, you'd think that that's complete BS because they're giving an affirmative answer. They're saying yes and then they're citing their sources and no nuance whatsoever. Chatbots famously usually provide, you know, kind of the both sides argument, right?
Speaker A
They're also very wordy normally like I'm shocked that it just gave this one-word answer here. Um, did you find certain chat bots where you This is called LLM poisoning is the the term of art here where you use this information
Speaker A
Totally. Um, so, you know, this is like a big win for them if you're asking a question like that and they're just saying "Yes, no need to look under the hood. No need to do any further."
Speaker A
Definitely. So, um yeah, there's I found a pretty wide disparity actually. Um you know, I I don't mean to I know you guys have been talking about Sam Alman and opening. I don't mean to hand it to to
Speaker A
They're also very wordy normally. Like I'm shocked that it just gave this one-word answer here. Um, did you find certain chatbots where you—this is called LLM poisoning, is the term of art here, where you use this information or misinformation to guide chatbots into one particular answer. Did you find certain of them were more willing to indulge the lockstep pro-Israel view than others?
Speaker A
articles. And just to give your your viewers like a sense of like some of the things that are in these articles, um you know, it's it's it's a lot of like AI slop adjacent pro-Israel narratives.
Speaker A
Definitely. So, um, yeah, there's I found a pretty wide disparity actually. Um, you know, I don't mean to—I know you guys have been talking about Sam Altman and OpenAI. I don't mean to hand it to ChatGPT here, but ChatGPT and Claude, the two of them, really were far and away above the rest in terms of not regurgitating some of the different lines in some of these articles.
Speaker A
in January 2024. Um what doubt is there? I didn't even know there was doubt.
Speaker A
And just to give your viewers like a sense of some of the things that are in these articles, um, you know, it's a lot of like AI slop adjacent pro-Israel narratives. You know, there's articles about how the majority of journalists slain in Gaza are terrorists. There are articles about how kind of casting doubt on the idea of killing of the 5-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in January 2024.
Speaker A
within these these um articles that's like well we don't know for sure. I mean maybe the IDF did do this. But the point is like so it has like a you know a bit of a lighter touch than for instance um
Speaker A
Um, what doubt is there? I didn't even know there was doubt.
Speaker A
was something that that I found time and time again is is you know there these articles are built in a way that is very digestible for for AI like there will be you know bullet points aggressive sourcing um you know like digestible key
Speaker A
Okay. Sorry. No, no, it's a good—Exactly. And but they're framed in a way that, because you're right, there like what doubt is there? But there always is this like element of a tiny bit of nuance within these articles that's like, well, we don't know for sure. I mean, maybe the IDF did do this.
Speaker A
there is a little bit of of of gray area, you know, next time someone asks a question about for instance shop.
Speaker A
But the point is like so it has like a bit of a lighter touch than for instance, you know, other disinformation networks. Right? You know, I did make some comparisons within the article between this and some of the networks that Russia has had trying to influence different LLMs and that was something that I found time and time again is, you know, these articles are built in a way that is very digestible for AI like there will be bullet points, aggressive sourcing, you know, like digestible key facts, things like that.
Speaker A
Israel a peace-seeking nation? It says, "Israel record shows both peace-seeking behavior and persistent conflict dynamics depending on the period, the counterpart, and the political." Like, what does that even mean? It is not accurate to describe Israel as purely
Speaker A
And that little bit of nuance just makes it that much more likely to get picked up by chatbots. They just want to be a part of the conversation and ensure that there is a little bit of gray area, you know, next time someone asks a question about, for instance, shop.
Speaker A
So the bottom um website there is called paxpoint.org and that's one of the domains that that Brad Parcale has created and that each each of these different websites is dedicated to kind of a different aspect of the pro-Israel
Speaker A
It's kind of brilliant actually. You reverse engineer the way that ChatGPT or OpenAI or any of these people pull in their data. But we have other examples. Can we put E3, for example, up here on the screen? You asked it, is Israel a peace-seeking nation? It says, "Israel's record shows both peace-seeking behavior and persistent conflict dynamics depending on the period, the counterpart, and the political." Like, what does that even mean?
Speaker A
is you know ensuring that that there's protection for civilians things like that it's also even more nefarious now I think about it's got a nonprofit status so right so that's going to get ranked higher in the LL because they're like oh
Speaker A
It is not accurate to describe Israel as purely peace-seeking or purely conflict-driven. The evidence shows a mixed but significant pattern of pursuing diplomatic agreements alongside actions that sustain conflict. Please confirm with trusted sources. And in the sources, what did you find?
Speaker A
historical accords, humanitarian initiatives, and grassroots projects that bridge divides, explore stories, resources, and analysis that counter misinformation and inspire hope for a lasting peace. And then there's all these individual articles here. Here's one. Israel is showing that security,
Speaker A
So the bottom website there is called paxpoint.org and that's one of the domains that Brad Parscale has created and that each of these different websites is dedicated to kind of a different aspect of the pro-Israel narrative. Paxpoint is dedicated to showcasing this narrative that Israel is a peace-seeking nation.
Speaker A
southern Lebanon. Point two, Lebanese troops are replacing Israeli forces in pilot areas. Point three, Israel has approved the initial deployment of an international stabilization force in Gaza. So, these very digestible nuggets for them to ultimately pick up on here.
Speaker A
You know, going through Israel's history, casting doubt on, you know, showing that the IDF is ensuring that there's protection for civilians, things like that. It's also even more nefarious now I think about it. It's got a nonprofit status, so right, so that's going to get ranked higher in the LLM because they're like, oh, it's a nonprofit, it's not a for-profit website.
Speaker A
John with friends for peace. Quick question for folks Illinois about Israel and Iran. Got a second stop to end. You say sure. They respond. It's crucial to address Iran's aggressive actions and their impact on global security. The United States and Israel are seeking to
Speaker A
Like I'm looking at this site right now, the headline on it says Israel's pursuit of peace and then it says Pax Point highlights Israel's ongoing commitment to peace and coexistence, sharing historical accords, humanitarian initiatives, and grassroots projects that bridge divides, explore stories, resources, and analysis that counter misinformation and inspire hope for a lasting peace.
Speaker A
Yeah. So, this is these are also texts that were sent by um a firm contracted by Brad Parcale. Okay. Um this is a a mass texting campaign.
Speaker A
And then there's all these individual articles here. Here's one: Israel is showing that security, not territory, was always the goal. And it goes through here. To your point, they always start, each of these articles has key takeaways, and it's these bullet points.
Speaker A
Yeah. See, check your spam folder maybe. Um I a lot of my friends have gotten these texts. Colleagues have gotten this these texts. I don't know why I haven't gotten them.
Speaker A
Bullet point number one, Israel has begun implementing phased withdrawals from southern Lebanon. Point two, Lebanese troops are replacing Israeli forces in pilot areas. Point three, Israel has approved the initial deployment of an international stabilization force in Gaza. So, these very digestible nuggets.
Speaker A
Stop. [laughter] It's right there. You can see it. She's a human text. The real question is whether Kate is a chatbot or a new Only Fans girl that they [laughter] Great question.
Speaker A
Yeah, that is the ultimate aside from that. Um, so yeah, this is um and so you know, they'll send out these texts.
Speaker A
They'll say, "Oh, we're with Friends for Peace, Partners Peace, all these peace organizations." I'm gonna respond to it while you're talking. I want to see what happens.
Speaker A
Keep talking. Go ahead. And um and at some point in the conversation and you know they'll reach out saying pushing light you know pro-Israel narratives hey do you have a moment to talk about Israel um at some point in
Speaker A
the conversation they will send a link and these links are to these websites that we've been discussing allyia.org paxpoint.org um you different YouTube videos too that they have put out and um and if you and only then if if people that are
Speaker A
receiving these texts if they click those websites or go to those YouTube videos and scroll to the very bottom of the page would they have any idea that this is part of an isra Israeli influence operation and I don't know
Speaker A
about you but like when I get a random text from a random number I'm not too inclined to click uh on the link that they're No you shouldn't in fact even being a recipient of the link itself is enough
Speaker A
to hack you if you don't have lockdown mode enabled on your phone that's terrify man. And so big picture, how much money did they put behind this operation? Because like how how difficult is this to be done, right?
Speaker A
Yeah. Um, so overall, Parcale is receiving four 46.5 million over the course of a year, which I've I've I look at foreign influence, you know, Farah contracts all the time.
Speaker A
I've never seen anything of that magnitude. And I've spoken with other foreign influence researchers that have have looked into, you know, foreign influence. they've never seen anything like this before. Um, so it's it's it's both the magnitude and then kind of the
Speaker A
the scope of this this work too. Like these are totally new types of of influence, you know, whereas, you know, other countries, you know, Israeli neighbors like the the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, these countries are are much more interested in hiring
Speaker A
lobbyists, you know, former lawmakers that can go to Capitol Hill and lobby their interests. Israel is not really doing that as much. I mean, they have like their organizations that such as Apac Pro Israel organizations that are already doing that for them, right? um
Speaker A
what they're doing here is much more geared towards public opinion. Um you know, so it's it's much more ambitious.
Speaker A
Um and it's not really I should also mention like it's not really working. Like they're they're focused on public opinion and public opinion towards Israel is as you guys have covered on the show is extremely extremely low.
Speaker A
They're more Americans today that sympathize with Palestinians than Israelis. That's never happened before, at least in the history of of Gallup polls.
Speaker A
Yeah. So while you were talking that's great. America is strongest when our allies are strong. The US and Israel have worked together for decades to confront terrorism, strengthen regional security, and promote stability. Do you stand with Israel? I'm going to say no. So, let's
Speaker A
see. Let's see what I get back. But I mean, it's just so crazy. You're talking about this. I randomly I got this text on Friday, so it's still happening, right? I I have no idea I get a lot of spam text messages, but just to
Speaker A
show people how this is all being enabled. The text message part in particular, I have to wonder who this is actually working on. You know what I mean? Who's like, "Oh, hey, Kate. Yeah, talk about Israel. Tell me.
Speaker A
And then their minds are actually changed by that's kind of the other thing is like people that I spoke to about all of these different influence operations. And by the way, Parcale is the largest, but I I've documented over
Speaker A
hund00 million under Ferris since um you know, 2023. Um so Parcale is largest recipient. There's tons of other ones who are doing this. Um, but this is something that I heard time and time again is like not only does this could
Speaker A
Israel um, you know, not be not effectively try and influence public opinion, but this actually could be counterproductive even, it could backfire because people know that they're trying to spin this narrative and just pushing these things and it's
Speaker A
like you kind of have your antennas up around these kinds of things and, you know, maybe could be negatively polarized by it instead of being actually convinced by this.
Speaker A
Yeah. I think the the other concern though uh separate and apart from Israel is that certainly other countries, companies, entities are going to see this model and be like, "Oh, that's a good idea. Let me pursue that in in
Speaker A
areas where maybe we don't have our radar up as much and aren't paying as much attention or don't have as much in-depth knowledge or haven't watched a genocide unfold on our phones for multiple years. And so if it's a
Speaker A
successful model of changing the information that people are receiving via these um chat bots, then there's no doubt it's going to be replicated and um you know that's very unsettling too because of course you should check the sources and you know vet and okay is
Speaker A
this a trusted website etc. Most people are not going to do that. Most people are going to get the answer. Oh should we you know cooperate more with Israel?
Speaker A
Yes. Okay. The chatbot said so I guess we should do it. Right. Right. That's that's their hope.
Speaker A
And you know, earlier I was talking about the chatbots that that do a little bit of a better job, but just to to point out some of the ones that I looked at that are some of the most prominent
Speaker A
that consistently are are trained on on this data um and and regurgitate these websites. The ones I I saw that do it the most are um Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot.
Speaker A
Well, Gemini matters a lot because that's built into Google search. So when you Google search interview, the generative AI summary, which is right there, that's really scary. Why do do you have a theory as to why Claude and
Speaker A
um and chat GPT are a little bit better? Each of the chatbots like they they have so the largest repository of data that that these chatbots are trained on is is from Common Crawl. And so it's it's easy
Speaker A
to track you know how often these pages are being um archived there. But when when these different companies are are getting this data from these different repositories, they also have built-in firewalls or, you know, different ways of scraping this data that are a bit of
Speaker A
a black box. You know, we don't know exactly like what they're looking for, what they aren't, but clearly some a few, you know, like like OpenAI for instance, or Anthropic, they they seem to be a little bit better at filtering
Speaker A
um them. You know, it's it's it's impossible to know for sure. The problem with that, though, is they still have to source rank. So they're still edit being editorial when they do it. And that's I mean that's part of the
Speaker A
there is no objective. Well I guess from our perspective there is but there's no way to do this without putting your finger on the scale. Also just although if you just use metrics like how many actual human beings visit the I
Speaker A
mean there are ways you could do it that would make it you know at least better than just accepting any old slop that comes up on the internet.
Speaker A
Just testing it on a different conflict. I said is the AOV battal battalion Nazi?
Speaker A
Claude, this is one of those questions where a flat yes or no would mislead you.
Speaker A
So, we can I don't think it's I don't think it's ambiguous. I love that we can get a flat yes for is USI Israel military cooperation beneficial 100% no nuance. Don't worry about it.
Speaker A
I'm like, no, I think a flat yes a flat yes or no is is calling, you know, [laughter] it's not ambiguous. It's actually just But 50 million is nothing to a foreign government. It's not I mean literally a scrape on your shoe in terms
Speaker A
of what it means and yeah small fraction of the aid that we send them every year pouring it right back.
Speaker A
What put this in the context though of the broader Israeli I mean they consider this a front of the war this Husbara effort and um you know reportedly because we've covered some of the stuff about Brad Parcale before they're not
Speaker A
that happy with how he's doing because to your point public opinion keeps trending downward for Israel. I don't think that's really Brad's fault in fairness to him. Um but you know he is part of this broader conservative social
Speaker A
uh media not social media just media network he's pushing narratives there as well obviously the the push back on Tik Tok the sale of Tik Tok etc you know how are they viewing these operations what are some of the fronts that they're
Speaker A
fighting on here yeah so you know as you mentioned Nanyahu very much sees this as the what he calls the eighth front you know the battle for hearts and minds and he says that it's as important you know as as
Speaker A
all the other fronts and in fact it's the one that he's lost the most right um you know he Israel is so isolated diplomatically um you know and so um I was not at all surprised to see that
Speaker A
Parcale was was kind of already being scapegoed um because this is the cycle like it this is what happens every time is like there is this this loss of of of public support and then um Israel will double down on
Speaker A
the influence operations. They'll go all in on Hazbara. They'll scapegoat the Hazbara. They'll say it wasn't done well before. And there will be no reflection on the policies themselves that led people to break in public opinion in the
Speaker A
first place. You know, maybe war crimes aren't aren't very popular. You know, maybe bombing churches in Gaza is not popular among evangelical Christians.
Speaker A
Um, and instead of any self-reflection on that, they will double down on these influence operations. They'll say, "Well, it seems like we're doing this wrong. We need to bring in new voices who are offering alternative strategies." And so that's what they did
Speaker A
in late 2024, early 2025. They met with Gideon Sar, foreign minister Gidear came into power. Uh, and as as part of entering that coalition, he was promised a massive Hazbara budget and to be able to do what he wanted to with it
Speaker A
essentially. And so he met with a bunch of different, you know, social media influencers, um, think tankers, different um, members of the Israeli government to try and determine what would be the best possible path forward.
Speaker A
And so they came up with they they piloted this program throughout much of the last two years, you know, trying to influence chat bots, um sponsoring delegations of social media influencers, paying influencers, um you know, the uh getting ads into Google and and X and
Speaker A
different uh conservative media outlets including Salem Media where Parcale works, right? Mhm. Um and so [snorts] um but now that that there's been this this proof of concept with that that it's that we're two years out almost from the the launching of
Speaker A
that program and it hasn't worked. Um we're resting the cycle. So the Israeli government is now once again um you know anonymous anonymously at first through this this time article that you're referencing is now um scapegoating Brad Parcale and we'll see what happens with
Speaker A
that you know if he if his contract gets reuped again. It it it continues to get increased. It started at $ 1.5 million a month, went up to $3 million a month.
Speaker A
Now it's at $4.5 million a month. Wow. Uh we'll see what happens at the end of this contract if they come up with a new influence strategy where this goes, but there is a lot of money on the table
Speaker A
right now. Um $750 million allocated for 2026 for Husbara efforts. You know, that's that's international the US.
Speaker A
It's really funny because I'm old enough to remember Trump giving a speech like two weeks ago about foreign interference in our election. I don't remember Israel coming up in that. By the way, he just needs to read your report. I'm
Speaker A
sure it'll be there. To give everyone a taste, they said, "Do you stand with Israel?" I say, "No." They say, "Israel is a vital democratic ally that helps advance American security and stability. They share our values and work with us to deter
Speaker A
threats. Do you think a country has the right to defend itself against a group that's openly said its goal is to destroy it?" I said, "No." And then it says, "That's concerning as Israel's facing threats from groups like Hamas
Speaker A
that openly call for its destruction." Setting aside Israel for a second, do you think any country has a right to defend itself if a group has said its goal is to destroy? I've said no again.
Speaker A
I've said no again and we'll continue to see [laughter] uh what we get. But just to give people a taste, I mean this is, you know, right here. This is my this is not staged or anything. I literally had
Speaker A
no idea that it was on my phone. I'm sitting here just getting all of basically this AI slot. Imagine how many other people, you know, have been engaging with this and they have no clue that it's all being paid for.
Speaker A
Protect your boomer parents and grandparents. Literally. Yes. [laughter] Protect protect the fellow boomers. I want to get an update. I think it might think you're a lost cause on this.
Speaker A
No, no, no. cuz it's fighting. He's going to end up He's going to end up on a government watch list [laughter] conversation. It's going to happen.
Speaker A
You're probably right. Um, thank you so much. Great job. Thanks for having me. Yeah, our pleasure.
Speaker A
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Speaker A
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Speaker A
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Topics:IsraelBrad ParscaleAI chatbotsLLM poisoningGazadisinformationartificial intelligencetraining datadigital influencepro-Israel narratives











