OpenAI has disclosed in its latest threat report that certain China-based ChatGPT accounts were involved in what it termed “authoritarian abuses,” including cyber operations and social media monitoring. The company stated that some accounts, allegedly linked to Chinese government entities, violated policies related to national security uses.
According to the report, these accounts were used to generate proposals for systems designed to monitor social media conversations. Others engaged in cyber operations targeting Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, U.S. academia, and political groups critical of the Chinese Communist Party. In some instances, ChatGPT was utilized to create phishing emails in English to infiltrate IT systems.
The report highlighted that while ChatGPT is not officially available in China due to the “Great Firewall,” Chinese-language versions of the app are accessed through virtual private networks (VPNs). OpenAI noted, “Our disruption of ChatGPT accounts used by individuals apparently linked to Chinese government entities shines some light on the current state of AI usage in this authoritarian setting.”
Additionally, the report identified cyber operations conducted by Russian and Korean-speaking users. While these activities did not appear directly tied to government entities, some users may have been associated with state-backed criminal groups. OpenAI claims to have disrupted over 40 malicious networks since February 2024.
