Israel’s first AI-era elections will put democracy to the test
Imagine it’s election day and you get a voice message on WhatsApp from someone you know, telling you not to go vote because violence has broken out at the polling station. Or, you’re scrolling through your feed and see a video in which the Central Elections Committee chair announces that the elections have been postponed (something that, in Israel’s election system, could plausibly occur). Imagine seeing footage that appears entirely authentic, showing hackers breaking into the Elections Committee servers and altering the results.
With the ascendence of AI, falsehoods such as these are infinitely simple to manufacture and disseminate. As our ability to distinguish between authentic content and machine-generated content steadily erodes, the implications for the integrity of Israel’s upcoming elections are clear. Israeli democracy is facing an unprecedented challenge.
When we speak of “election integrity,” we mean a level playing field for all contenders, and above all, for the voters. That means ensuring conditions that allow every citizen to form an opinion and vote freely, based on reliable information and without deception.
On the surface, every candidate seeks to persuade us to vote for them. In reality, the modern era increasingly requires campaigns to focus on two other questions: will we turn out to vote, and will we be willing to accept the election results? Alongside domestic actors working to encourage or suppress turnout, or to undermine trust in the Central Elections Committee, there are also the opportunists – local, and especially foreign, actors who exploit election periods as an opportunity to deepen social and political polarization, and to undermine something even more fundamental: our confidence in our ability to determine what is true and what is false in the reality around us.
We’ve already seen these aims pursued through through multiple channels: news media, social networks, WhatsApp groups, Telegram channels, video game forums, chatbots, and more. But, the upcoming elections will take place in a dramatically different information ecosystem: they will be the first Israeli elections held in the age of artificial intelligence.
Custom-tailored messaging
With AI, it is possible to generate dozens of versions of the same message, making it difficult for automated systems to detect coordinated activity. Messages can be tailored with extraordinary precision. We are no longer talking about a single “campaign ad” for everyone, but an emotional pressure point that speaks directly to the fears, anger, or hopes of a specific individual. When we consider that machines today can infer from a facial image not only who we are, but also emotional states, and according to some studies, even highly sensitive personal information, one can only imagine the level of emotional precision and personalization such messaging can reach.
Another major development is the entry of chatbots into our daily lives. Their penetration in Israel over the past two years has been nothing short of staggering. We turn to them to understand what is happening, to check facts, to form opinions, and even to receive emotional support. And here lies a new arena – one whose political persuasive power no one yet fully understands, but where a race is already underway to poison, bias, or exploit these systems and turn them into machines of persuasion.
This, in practice, is what the threat to election integrity in 2026 looks like: a combination of generated content and information flooding that makes it harder to discern reality; emotionally personalized messaging; and the political consultant in the form of a chatbot. In such a situation, a “liars’ dividend” also emerges: the mere possibility of fabrication allows politicians to dismiss any damaging revelation as a product of artificial intelligence.
Why is this challenge so difficult to confront? Because election laws are outdated and never defined what it means to “interfere with elections” in the digital age; because decision-makers do not always understand that the entire information ecosystem must be addressed, rather than isolated pieces of content; because of the time problem – by the time platforms respond, the elections are already over; and because, at times, parties and candidates find it more convenient to benefit from the phenomenon than to confront it.
Section 122 of Israel’s Knesset Elections Law addresses “electoral corruption.” It lists curses, ostracism, boycotts, and amulets as prohibited means of influencing voters. The question that should now concern us is a simple one: what are the curses, amulets, and boycotts of 2026? If we do not give them updated meaning, election integrity will become nothing more than an empty slogan.
