Russian fake think-tank with real employees exposed in 'most complex' influence operation attempt, OpenAI says
A separate Iran-origin campaign used ChatGPT to edit and pitch nearly 100 articles that were published by real media outlets – under fake journalist bylines.
OpenAI announced on October 8 that it had banned Russian and Iranian accounts using its ChatGPT AI assistant for covert influence operations. The Russian campaign, believed to be the most complex attempt to date, reportedly led to politicians commenting publicly in several countries. The operation targeted Latin American countries with a fake think-tank, staffed by unwitting local employees, while the Iranian operation used fake journalist personas to pitch articles to genuine media outlets worldwide.
Both campaigns aimed to launder geopolitical messaging into target audiences. OpenAI identified a key Russian arm as the Social Research Center, which appeared to have duped local employees in Latin America into working for the operation without knowledge of its true purpose. OpenAI rated the Russian campaign a Category 5, the second-highest level on its scale, due to its potential impact and prompting of public comment by politicians.
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