OpenAI says Iran tried to influence US election using ChatGPT

OpenAI has a number of ChatGPT accounts have been blocked linked to an Iranian influence campaign that generated and shared content related to the U.S. presidential election, among other topics. The operation primarily used ChatGPT to create long-form articles and social media commentary for platforms like Instagram and X, according to OpenAI.

OpenAI has merged accounts to Storm-2035a covert Iranian influence operation that attempted to engage American voters by launching websites posing as political news outlets. In addition to commentary on the U.S. election from both sides of the political spectrum, OpenAI says the operation generated content about Israel’s war with Hamas, Israel at the Olympics, politics in Venezuela, and “Latino community rights” in the U.S.

OpenAI says its investigation found the campaign “does not appear to have significant audience engagement.” The AI ​​firm says most of the social media posts it detected received “little to no likes, shares, or comments.” In May, OpenAI and Meta announced they had discontinued a social media campaign that used AI to post pro-Israel messages on Instagram and Facebook.

With the U.S. presidential election just months away, we could see more attempts to interfere in the election results. Last week, former President Donald Trump confirmed that his campaign had been hacked and linked the incident to a phishing email sent by an Iranian hacking group. In June, the F.B.I. an investigation has been launched regarding the alleged hacking of the Trump campaign, as well as alleged attempts to hack the Biden-Harris campaign.