OpenAI said on Friday it had uncovered an “Iranian influence operation” using ChatGPT. Known as Storm-1679, the group crafted articles and social media comments to shape public opinion about Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, OpenAI said. Open AIAccording to OpenAI, Storm-1679 targeted 2024 US presidential candidates, as well as generating content about Israel’s invasion of Gaza and its participation in the 2024 Olympics, the rights of the Latino community in the US, Venezuelan politics, and Scottish independence from the UK.
Most of the posts and articles that OpenAI found had little to no exposure from real people, the company said. He detailed the incident in a blog postOpenAI wrote that it found 12 X (formerly Twitter) accounts posing as conservative or progressive and using hashtags like #DumpTrump and #DumpKamala. OpenAI said Storm-1679 also used at least one Instagram account to spread AI-generated content.
OpenAI previously said:Nation-state Threat ActorsThe company has previously used its tools to carry out election interference campaigns, but this is the first time it has publicly disclosed a specific election interference campaign using ChatGPT.
Following its discovery, OpenAI said it banned “a group” of accounts that created the content. The company also said it “shared threat information with government, campaign, and industry stakeholders.” The company did not specifically name the stakeholders, but shared several screenshots of the posts, which had between 8 and 207 views and very few likes.
OpenAI said Storm-1679 shared ChatGPT-generated articles on multiple websites “masquerading as both progressive and conservative news outlets.” The company added that “the majority of the social media posts we identified received few to no likes, shares, or comments. Similarly, we found no indication that the web articles were being shared on social media.”
Anne August 6th Report Microsoft analysts described Storm-2035 as an Iranian network with “four websites posing as news media,” which Microsoft said had produced “polarizing” posts about the election, LGBTQIA+ rights, and Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
Reports of foreign online interference in US elections are now virtually commonplace. Microsoft’s August 6 report, for example, also detailed Iran-linked phishing attacks targeting unnamed “high-ranking” US campaign officials. Shortly after Microsoft retracted the report, the Trump campaign announced that “foreign sources” had stolen some of the campaign’s emails and documents in an attempt to influence the 2024 presidential election. Eight years earlier, a Russia-linked hacking group known as “Guccifer 2.0” had stolen Democratic National Committee emails in a similar manner. Phishing AttacksThey ultimately leaked thousands of DNC emails and documents ahead of the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
Under intense pressure from lawmakers, big tech companies have responded to these incidents with a variety of efforts over the years, including fact-checking memes, wishful thinking, temporary political advertising bans, “war huddles,” and collaboration with rival companies and police.
