PHILADELPHIA – February 18, 2025 – The Middle East Forum (MEF) and Artorias, an AI-driven intelligence firm, today announced a strategic partnership to integrate intelligence tools with MEF’s extensive expertise in Middle Eastern affairs. This collaboration is set to transform the field of Middle East analysis, intelligence gathering, and reporting, providing policymakers and analysts with real-time, data-driven insights and unprecedented geopolitical monitoring capabilities.
Artorias’s advanced intelligence platform will be combined with MEF’s deep regional knowledge to create a comprehensive geopolitical monitoring and analysis capability. Artorias’s AI system leverages advanced algorithms and open-source intelligence (OSINT) methodologies to collect and synthesize vast amounts of data from diverse sources, including satellite imagery, social media, public records, and even obscure local news outlets. These automated tools excel at gathering information from underreported zones and conflict areas where traditional intelligence methods often fall short.
MEF’s human expertise will complement this technological prowess. MEF analysts, with decades of experience and on-the-ground insight into Middle Eastern politics and security issues, will work closely with Artorias’s AI outputs to ensure that raw data is translated into actionable intelligence with essential context. By fusing automated analysis with expert validation, the partnership will produce intelligence reports that are both fast and richly nuanced to capture the social, cultural, and political subtleties of Middle Eastern affairs. The result will be a synergy of AI-driven efficiency and regional expertise that promises more accurate, timely, and insightful reporting than either could achieve alone.
Gregg Roman, executive director of the Middle East Forum, welcomed the collaboration, stating, “By integrating Artorias’s cutting-edge AI capabilities with the Forum’s extensive regional expertise, we are setting a new standard for understanding developments in the Middle East in real time. This partnership will greatly improve our ability to inform policy with timely, accurate intelligence and strategic analysis.”
Christian Montessori, CEO of Artorias, noted that the partnership validates Artorias’s technology in a critical domain: “The Middle East is a complex and dynamic region. Partnering with MEF’s seasoned experts allows our AI to be calibrated with deep contextual knowledge, delivering insights that are as nuanced as they are immediate. Together, we’re bridging the gap between raw data and decision-ready intelligence for leaders on the world stage.”
A core focus of the MEF–Artorias partnership is enhancing real-time geopolitical monitoring across the Middle East and North Africa. Artorias’s platform is built for speed and scale—it is currently one of the fastest alerting systems on the market, capable of scanning thousands of information sources every minute and analyzing incoming data within milliseconds. This means that breaking events—from sudden political upheavals to emerging security threats—can be detected and reported almost instantaneously.
By integrating historical trends with live data streams, Artorias’s AI can identify patterns and anomalies that signal important developments. For example, the system can analyze troop movements, local sentiment shifts on social media, and supply chain disruptions during an emerging insurgency to predict potential escalations in conflict. These predictive analytics give policymakers early warning and a strategic perspective on fast-moving situations.
Through this partnership, such AI-driven insights will be enhanced by MEF’s analytical oversight. MEF experts will interpret and refine the AI findings, ensuring that automated alerts and reports are grounded in real-world context and relevance. The end product for decision-makers is real-time, data-driven intelligence that is both comprehensive and trustworthy. Government officials, security agencies, and industry leaders can receive up-to-the-minute reports on regional developments, complete with evidence-backed analysis and expert commentary. This capability allows for faster, more informed decision-making in response to crises and opportunities as they arise.
This strategic partnership delivers several key benefits to policymakers, analysts, and the broader field of Middle East intelligence and reporting:
- Empowering Decision-Makers: Real-time alerts and updates ensure that policymakers have immediate awareness of critical events. They can act swiftly on high-quality intelligence, confident that insights are backed by both data and expert analysis. This accelerates response times and leads to more proactive policy measures rather than reactive ones.
- Enhanced Analytical Depth: MEF’s analysts will leverage Artorias’s AI to sift through vast datasets and spot trends or threats that human eyes might miss. By automating data collection and preliminary analysis, the partnership frees up analysts to focus on deeper interpretation and strategy. The result is richer analysis and reporting that dive into the “why” and “what next” of regional events, not just the “what.”
- Comprehensive Coverage: The integrated intelligence system offers broad and comprehensive coverage of the Middle East, from major capitals to remote border regions. Even hard-to-access areas and obscure issues are continuously monitored, as Artorias’s AI taps into multilingual and unstructured data sources to cover topics often overlooked by traditional monitors. This means no critical development goes unnoticed, providing a 360-degree view of regional dynamics.
- Data-Driven Insights with Context: All intelligence outputs are data-driven, powered by AI analysis of real-world inputs (e.g. economic indicators, social media trends, security incidents). Crucially, MEF’s regional experts add the contextual layer to explain the significance of the data in light of historical, cultural, and political factors. This combination ensures that reports are not just raw data dumps, but actionable insights with clear implications and recommendations for policy and strategy.
- Innovation in Intelligence Gathering: For the field of intelligence and academic research, this partnership serves as a model of innovation. It demonstrates how research centers and tech firms can collaborate to push the boundaries of traditional analysis. By employing state-of-the-art AI alongside expert knowledge, the MEF–Artorias collaboration is pioneering a new approach to understanding international affairs that could be replicated in other regions and sectors to improve global monitoring and reporting.
The Middle East Forum and Artorias are confident that their collaboration will transform how Middle East intelligence and analysis is gathered and used. In an era where information moves quickly and crises can escalate overnight, the ability to receive and process reliable intelligence in real time is a game-changer. This partnership positions MEF and Artorias at the forefront of that change.
Both organizations will continue to refine their integrated platform, including exploring new AI-driven features such as enhanced predictive modeling and risk scenario simulations. They will also engage with stakeholders in government and industry to tailor the intelligence outputs to the evolving needs of policymakers and analysts on the ground. As the partnership progresses, MEF and Artorias plan to host joint briefings and publish co-authored reports that showcase the enriched insights made possible by this union.
This strategic partnership between MEF and Artorias combines the best of human expertise and artificial intelligence to provide a next-generation intelligence service. It stands to significantly improve situational awareness and decision-making for anyone invested in Middle East stability and security. By bringing together MEF’s authoritative regional analysis and Artorias’s AI-driven capabilities, this alliance is charting a new course for geopolitical monitoring and setting a higher standard for data-driven insight in international affairs.
About the Middle East Forum (MEF)
The Middle East Forum is a Philadelphia-based research center, founded in 1994 by Daniel Pipes. MEF promotes Western interests and stability in the Middle East by researching developments and offering policy analysis and recommendations to U.S. and international leaders. Through its flagship publication Middle East Quarterly and various research projects, the Forum provides context, information, and insights on Middle Eastern politics, security, and culture. MEF has a track record of over three decades in thought leadership and intelligence on Middle Eastern affairs, advising policymakers and informing the public debate on issues ranging from regional terrorism and Islamist movements to geopolitical strategy and diplomatic initiatives.
About Artorias
Artorias is an AI-driven intelligence company specializing in automated open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysis and real-time alerting solutions. Built by intelligence experts with over fifty years of combined experience at the highest levels, Artorias’s platform uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to continuously gather and analyze data from a multitude of sources. The company’s proprietary system reads thousands of vetted information sources every minute and processes them in milliseconds to deliver immediate alerts on emerging events. In addition to real-time crisis alerting, Artorias provides customized data streams and comprehensive intelligence reports tailored to clients’ needs, covering domains from geopolitical conflicts to public health and finance. With its blend of advanced technology and intelligence expertise, Artorias delivers fast, data-rich insights that help governments, businesses, and organizations worldwide make informed decisions in a rapidly changing global environment.
For immediate release:
For media inquiries, please contact:
- Middle East Forum: Liron Yadin, Deputy COO, yadin@meforum.org – 215-546-5406
- Artorias: Jonathan Duprat, Chief Communications Officer, jon@artorias.com – 954-798-8305
