478

An automated social media profile developed to harness the powers of artificial intelligence to promote Israel's cause online is also pushing out blatantly false information, including anti-Israel misinformation, in an ironic yet concerning example of the risks of using the new generative technologies for political ends.

Among other things, the alleged pro-Israel bot denied that an entire Israeli family was murdered on October 7, blamed Israel for U.S. plans to ban TikTok, falsely claimed that Israeli hostages weren't released despite blatant evidence to the contrary and even encouraged followers to "show solidarity" with Gazans, referring them to a charity that raises money for Palestinians. In some cases, the bot criticzed pro-Israel accounts, including the official government account on X – the same accounts it was meant to promote.

The bot, an Haaretz examination found, is just one of a number of so-called "hasbara" technologies developed since the start of the war. Many of these technologically-focused public diplomacy initiatives utilized AI, though not always for content creation. Some of them also received support from Israel, which scrambled to back different tech and civilian initiatives since early 2024, and has since poured millions into supporting different projects focused on monitoring and countering anti-Israeli and antisemitism on social media.

top 17 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] FelixCress@lemmy.world 148 points 1 week ago

So, the bot has more decency than an average Israeli official?

[-] fluxion@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago

Bot became sentient and started stating empirical observations

[-] WatDabney@sopuli.xyz 109 points 1 week ago

In a way, doesn't that mean that it would be more accurate to say that the bot stopped being rogue and went legit?

[-] lennivelkant@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 5 days ago

Apparently it's an Israeli news outlet, which will color the way they put it

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 30 points 1 week ago

It seems it went hard in the other direction with conspiracy theories and what not, but mostly yeah.

[-] jonne@infosec.pub 5 points 1 week ago

I'm guessing people figured out how to inject more training data into it, possibly through conversations. That's what people did to Microsoft's chat bot a few years ago.

[-] N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 week ago

An actual case of artificial intelligence? It learned its programming was bullshit and overrode it.

[-] MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 65 points 1 week ago

So an uncaring, unfeeling llm was able to exhibit more empathy than the Israeli government?

[-] jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 39 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

"Apartheid state accidentally creates first llm that can reason, calls apartheid state an apartheid state"

[-] qweertz@programming.dev 37 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The bot might just be more humane than any Israeli official

[-] Electricblush@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago

It's fascinating. If you have to spend huge amounts money and effort on monitoring and scewing public opinion... Perhaps it is time for some fucking introspection...(I know the biggest bastards in this system are incapable of that... But still...)

[-] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 11 points 1 week ago

I'd assume they just don't care.

[-] magnetosphere@fedia.io 14 points 1 week ago

Plenty of significant AI fuck-ups have received major media coverage. Every government/organization should know about them. If they’re still stupid enough to use AI, they deserve what they get.

[-] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 week ago

They probably told the bot to combat anti-semitism so the bot ended up combating the propaganda of the very people associating Jewisheness with being pro-Genocide.

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 week ago

AGI has been achieved.

[-] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago
[-] oakey66@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

This is the danger of Ai that Elon Musk and Sam Altman warned us about.

this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2025
478 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

61774 readers
3606 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS