Disrupting AI-enabled “false front” operations
OpenAI banned Russian and Iranian influence operations that used ChatGPT to run false-front media and think-tank campaigns.
OpenAI said it banned two covert influence operations, one originating in Russia and one in Iran, that used its models to support false-front entities laundering geopolitical messaging. The Iranian effort used seven journalist personas to pitch long-form articles and generated social-media comments about the US-Iran war, reaching Breakout Scale Category 4. The Russian cluster, nicknamed Dark Clark, used VPNs to access ChatGPT, ran a Latin America think tank called the Social Research Center through a persona named Mia Clark, and was rated Category 5, the highest OpenAI says it has disrupted. Both operations placed content in mainstream outlets and used AI heavily to draft internal reports that exaggerated effectiveness.