Chinese Official's Use of ChatGPT Revealed a Global Intimidation Opperation

Source: Slashdot

Report Overview

New submitter sabbede shares a report from CNN Politics: 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. The Chinese official used ChatGPT like a diary to document the alleged covert campaign of suppression, OpenAI said.

Examples of Intimidation Tactics

• Impersonation of U.S. immigration officials – 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, according to the ChatGPT user.
• Forged court documents – An effort was described to use forged documents from a U.S. county court to try to get a Chinese dissident’s social media account taken down.

“This is what Chinese modern transnational repression looks like,” Ben Nimmo, principal investigator at OpenAI, told reporters ahead of the report’s release. “It’s not just digital. It’s not just about trolling. It’s industrialized. It’s about trying to hit critics of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] with everything, everywhere, all at once.”

Expert Commentary

Michael Horowitz, a former Pentagon official focused on emerging technologies, said the OpenAI report “clearly demonstrates the way that China is actively employing AI tools to enhance information operations. U.S.–China AI competition is continuing to intensify. This competition is not just taking place at the frontier, but in how China’s government is planning and implementing the day‑to‑day of their surveillance and information apparatus.”

Source

• CNN Politics article: ChatGPT reveals Chinese intimidation operation