The spread of hate on social media platforms was disturbingly on the rise before the Oct. 7th Hamas attack on Israel, and in its aftermath, it has exploded. Alarmingly, AI technology is only proving to be a super-spreader of animus and intolerance

Washington D.C. — This week, the Interparliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Antisemitism partnered with ADL to convene experts and global leaders on the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative artificial intelligence (GAI) on the spread of online misinformation and antisemitism. The meeting was first announced in the Biden Administration’s first-ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism and brought together Parliamentarians, leaders in the field of artificial intelligence, global Special Envoys on combating antisemitism, civil society leaders, and White House officials.

The meeting was attended by Task Force co-chairs U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Canadian Member of Parliament Anthony Housefather, European Parliament Member David Lega from Sweden, U.S. Representatives Brad Schneider and Kathy Manning, and Costa Rican Deputy of the Legislative Assembly Eli Feinzaig. Director of Domestic Policy Council Neera Tanden represented the White House and was joined by U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt. The Special Envoy for Combatting Antisemitism for Israel, Michal Cotler-Wunsh, and National Coordinator for Combating Anti-Semitism for The Netherlands, Eddo Verdoner, also attended. They were joined by industry representatives from Microsoft, OpenAI, Modulate, Google, and Meta. The conversation focused on the threats posed by antisemitic actors and entities who have GAI tools at their disposal, shortfalls in existing efforts by some social media platforms to moderate AI-generated and manipulated content, and how large language models (LLMs) can be employed to identify, flag, and remove hateful posts.

This global meeting was announced before Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel on October 7^th. However, the session allowed for a fuller discussion on the opportunities and challenges posed by the use of AI and GAI in combating the overall spike in online antisemitism, often in the guise of anti-Zionism, as well as the explosive proliferation of disinformation about the war.

“The spread of hate on social media platforms was disturbingly on the rise before the Oct. 7^th Hamas attack on Israel, and in its aftermath, it has exploded. Alarmingly, AI technology is only proving to be a super-spreader of animus and intolerance. I am grateful to the ADL for partnering with the Task Force on such a critical component of our collective effort to combat online antisemitism,” said Wasserman Schultz. “This closed-door meeting allowed government officials and lawmakers from around the world to engage with industry leaders to have frank but necessary conversations on how we can work together to ensure bad actors are not allowed to exploit technology to expel hate onto all corners of the internet.”

“Since Oct. 7, antisemitic incidents have risen to astounding levels across the world,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “Much of this hate is being fomented online – in chat rooms, on social media, and through AI and generative artificial intelligence. For that reason, this gathering of the Interparliamentary Task Force could not be more timely. Our research shows that promoters of conspiracy theories and hate use AI and GAI to create misleading content about the Israel-Hamas war. This amplifies confusion and hate and causes misinformation to proliferate online. We know, too, that GAI’s sophisticated technology is fueling extremist ideologies, antisemitism and hate. Congress and governments around the world must take action to curb the proliferation of this dangerous content and build in guardrails for these systems.”

“I deeply appreciate the exchanges our Interparliamentary Task Force had with the Biden Administration and the platforms,” said Housefather. “We have had conversations and interchange with the platforms over the last three years but this week was the first time that I truly believe we made significant progress in our goals of transparent reporting of antisemitism and agreements on what constitutes antisemitism and the obligation of the platforms not to amplify it.  The use of AI can be both helpful and incredibly harmful and these meetings were a chance to get out in front of the issue. I left feeling very encouraged that social media companies will start collaborating in partnership with us to tackle the explosion of antisemitism we are facing.”

Co-chaired by Wasserman Schultz and Housefather, the Interparliamentary Task Force consists of a multi-partisan group of parliamentarians from around the world, including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the European Union, Costa Rica, and Israel.