A Chinese Official's Use of ChatGPT Accidentally Revealed a Global Intimidation Operation

Source: Slashdot

Overview

A sprawling Chinese influence operation—accidentally revealed by a Chinese law‑enforcement official’s use of ChatGPT—focused on intimidating Chinese dissidents abroad, including by impersonating U.S. immigration officials, according to a new report from ChatGPT‑maker OpenAI.

How the Operation Was Documented

• The Chinese official used ChatGPT like a diary to record details of the alleged covert campaign of suppression.
• In one instance, Chinese operators allegedly disguised themselves as U.S. immigration officials to warn a U.S.-based Chinese dissident that their public statements had supposedly broken the law.
• In another case, the operators described an effort to use forged documents from a U.S. county court to try to get a Chinese dissident’s social media account taken down.

Scale of the Campaign

OpenAI’s report indicates that the influence operation involved:

• Hundreds of Chinese operators.
• Thousands of fake online accounts across various social‑media platforms.

Significance

The report offers one of the most vivid examples yet of how authoritarian regimes can leverage AI tools to document and coordinate censorship and intimidation efforts.

Read more of this story at Slashdot