OpenAI allegedly caught an ‘Iranian Influence Operation’ using ChatGPT

OpenAI, the company that brought us ChatGPT, said on Friday that it discovered and banned “accounts linked to an Iranian influence operation.” The accounts were allegedly using ChatGPT to “generate content focused on multiple topics, including the U.S. presidential campaign,” OpenAI said in a statement.

The group is known as Storm-2035 which, according to Axios, has a reputation for attempting to influence elections by creating fake news websites and sharing them on social media. The OpenAI statement said the group used ChatGPT to “generate content focused on a number of topics — including commentary on candidates on both sides in the U.S. presidential election – which it then shared via social media accounts and websites.”

It generated content about both major party presidential candidates — Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump — along with Israel’s invasion of Gaza, Spanish and English-language discussions about the rights of Latinx communities in the U.S., Venezuelan politics, and Scottish independence. Storm-2035 also created some fashion and beauty content which, OpenAI suspects, is an attempt to “appear more authentic” and to “build a following.”

However, OpenAI reported that the attempt did not achieve “meaningful audience engagement.”

“The majority of social media posts that we identified received few or no likes, shares, or comments,” OpenAI said. “We similarly did not find indications of the web articles being shared across social media.”

“Notwithstanding the lack of meaningful audience engagement resulting from this operation, we take seriously any efforts to use our services in foreign influence operations,” OpenAI said.