Making Israel's case to ChatGPT and Grok: Hasbara meets AI in multi-million dollar PR push

This episode of the Ha'aretz Podcast explores the evolving landscape of digital influence, focusing on how Israel is leveraging AI and data-driven strategies to shape global narratives—what the host calls 'hasbara meets AI.' Omer Ben Jacob, a veteran cyber and disinformation reporter, discusses how the digital battlefield has shifted from traditional fake websites and influencers to sophisticated efforts to manipulate AI-generated responses, particularly from models like ChatGPT and Grok. He warns that governments and private actors are now using hyper-targeted campaigns, often operating in the 'non-indexed web'—invisible to public scrutiny—while also exploiting everyday data from ads, cars, and apps as national security assets. Ben Jacob draws a historical parallel to past surveillance scandals like Pegasus, but argues that the real shift is not in hacking individual devices anymore, but in mass data fusion through AI, enabling unprecedented surveillance and manipulation. He highlights how the U.S., once a critic of Israeli spyware firms, has now become a dominant force in the global surveillance tech market, acquiring companies like NSO and Candero, while Israel pivots toward data integration firms akin to Palantir. The episode concludes with a stark warning about declining privacy, the erosion of human gatekeepers, and the growing risk of AI-powered gaslighting in elections and public discourse.