OpenAI caught Russians and Iranians using ChatGPT for influence campaigns

OpenAI has banned Russian and Iranian accounts that were utilizing ChatGPT to conduct influence operations and spread false narratives. The operations included impersonating educational authorities and attempting to manipulate media coverage in Latin America and Europe.
Why it matters
This highlights the growing challenge of state-sponsored actors using generative AI to conduct sophisticated disinformation campaigns that can influence real-world political discourse.
OpenAI said in a blog post on Thursday that it banned Russian and Iranian accounts that were using the company's artificial intelligence tools to help with influence operations in multiple countries. The operatives said they managed to get their false narratives picked up by news outlets, and in once case, prompted a response from a member of the European Parliament, according to internal reports the operations produced using OpenAI's chatbot, ChatGPT.
Only on NPR We tested how AI chatbots would handle foreign propaganda. They did surprisingly well OpenAI investigated the impact of the different campaigns the accounts mentioned and found that those focused on placing false narratives in established media outlets appeared to have reached a wider audience than campaigns that focused on using fake social media accounts to spread their message.
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