OpenAI disrupts covert influence operations targeting India’s Lok Sabha elections

New Delhi, June 1: OpenAI, the organization behind ChatGPT has disrupted the covert influence campaigns that were generating content about the Gaza conflict, as well as the Indian elections.

The company said that in the past three months, it has disrupted covert influence operations that attempted to employ artificial intelligence (AI) models to promote the actions of dishonest and abusive individuals on the Internet.

Among these were efforts connected to operators in China, Iran, Russia (two networks), and a commercial company in Israel.

The Israeli commercial company, with content in Hebrew and English languages, first catered to audiences in Canada, the US, and Israel. However, in early May, the organization turned its attention to India, producing English-language online articles and social media posts that were critical of the ruling BJP party, OpenAI highlighted in their report “AI and Covert Influence Operations: Latest Trends.”

“This operation was divided into a number of topical campaigns, most of which were loosely associated with the Gaza conflict and the broader question of relations between individuals of Jewish and Muslim faith. In May, we disrupted some activity focused on the Indian elections less than 24 hours after it began,” the report stated.

“Finally, in May, the network began generating comments that focused on India, criticized the ruling BJP party and praised the opposition Congress party. Sometimes, the network appears to have flipped its accounts from one topic to another – for example, accounts that had earlier posted about Canada switched focus to the USA, India or the Histadrut (or more than one of these),” it added.

“Some of the content created by this network was posted on social media in reply to prominent Western figures on both sides of the political spectrum. These replies generally bore no relation to the original post. For example, one comment about Qatar “buying up” America was posted in reply to a post about former President Trump’s musical preferences,” the report read.

The Lok Sabha elections were being held in India across seven phases. The counting of votes will take place on June 4.