Russia used ChatGPT to run a covert influence campaign pushing pro-Kremlin narratives across the West
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OpenAI has disclosed and disrupted a covert Russian influence operation that used ChatGPT to generate social media posts promoting pro-Kremlin narratives. The operators, accessing from Russia via VPNs, created the fake "International Burke Institute" think tank and a "sovereignty index" that ranked Russia favorably. Most of the think tank's articles were copied from other sources with fake author credits. The campaign spread across X, LinkedIn, Facebook, Substack, and Telegram, including German-language content critical of Ukraine and the EU. Although individual posts saw low engagement, some Telegram channels reached 10,000-20,000 followers. OpenAI rates the campaign as category three on the Brookings Breakout Scale, noting the infrastructure could have been scaled up. The company also referenced past Russian operations it disrupted, and noted that the actual scale of AI-powered influence campaigns may be much larger.
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