OpenAI said on Friday that it caught an “Iranian influence operation” using ChatGPT. The group, known as Storm-1679, generated articles and social-media comments to shape public opinion around Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, according to OpenAI . In addition to targeting 2024 U.
S. presidential candidates, OpenAI said Storm-1679 also generated content around Israel’s invasion of Gaza and its presence at the 2024 Olympics, the rights of U.S.
-based Latinx communities, Venezuelan politics, and Scottish independence from the U.K. Most of the posts and articles spotted by OpenAI received little pickup from real people, the company said.
Still, it described the incident in detail on its blog , writing that it found a dozen X (formerly Twitter) accounts posing as conservatives and progressives and using hashtags such as “#DumpTrump” and “#DumpKamala.” Storm-1679 also tapped at least one Instagram account to spread AI-generated content, per OpenAI. OpenAI has previously described “ state-affiliated threat actors ” using its tools, but this is the first time it’s disclosed a specific election interference campaign utilizing ChatGPT.
OpenAI said it responded to said discovery by banning a “cluster” of accounts that created the content; the company also said it “shared threat intelligence with government, campaign, and industry stakeholders.” The firm did not name those stakeholders specifically, but it did share screenshots of .