Digital Rights Weekly Update: 26 September - 2 October

Israel wants to train ChatGPT to be more pro-Israel

Responsible Statecraft

The government of Israel has hired a new conservative-aligned firm, Clock Tower X LLC, to create media for Gen Z audiences in a contract worth $6 million. At least 80 percent of content Clock Tower produces will be “tailored to Gen Z audiences across platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, podcasts, and other relevant digital and broadcast outlets” with a minimum goal of 50 million impressions per month. Clock Tower will even deploy “websites and content to deliver GPT framing results on GPT conversations.” In other words, Clock Tower will create new websites to influence how AI GPT models such as ChatGPT, which are trained on vast amounts of data from every corner of the internet, frame topics and respond to them — all on behalf of Israel.

Netanyahu admits using social media as weapon to influence US opinion amid Gaza genocide

AA

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted Friday that his government views social media platforms as a “weapon” to support Israel's right-wing in the US amid condemnation for ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza. In a meeting with US influencers at Israel’s Consulate General in New York and published in a video on influencer Debra Lea’s account on the US social media company X, Netanyahu described social media as “the most important weapon … to secure our base in the US.” He identified TikTok as “the most important purchase going on right now,” alleging its control could be “consequential.” Netanyahu also mentioned X, saying: “We have to talk to Elon (Musk). He’s not an enemy, he’s a friend.” He claimed that if influence could be secured over TikTok and X, Israel would “get a lot.”

How Israel used Azure to monitor Palestinians | Explained

The Hindu

According to published reports, all intercepted voice calls and texts were transcribed and translated in the cloud. Advanced search indexes were then used to analyse the data to quickly decipher patterns. In short, Azure acted as both an enormous archive and an AI-driven search engine. The Guardian’s investigation emphasised that the IDF’s calls database was kept in “a customised and segregated area within the Azure platform,” allowing it to be “analysed using AI-driven techniques”. This kind of setup is enabled by modern cloud features that are powered by multi-modal AI that can turn any data into searchable text. Once a phone call is converted by speech-to-text, it is treated like any document. In practice, such tools would allow an intelligence officer to input a query and quickly retrieve relevant conversation snippets or even link them to satellite imagery.

Technology Against Genocide

Stanford Social Innovation

Big tech companies have played an outsize role in the war on Gaza since October 2023—from social media companies, who have been accused of systemic censorship of Palestine-related content, to Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Palantir signing lucrative contracts to provide artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies to the Israeli military. Concerned with the industry’s role in the attacks on Gaza, Paul Biggar, founder of Darklang and CircleCI, a startup turned billion-dollar technology company, founded Tech for Palestine in January 2024. The organization serves as an incubator, helping entrepreneurs whose projects support human rights for Palestinians develop and grow their businesses. “Our projects are, on the one hand, using tech for good, and on the other hand, addressing the systemic challenges around Israel in the tech industry,” Biggar says.