 "OpenAI")
In a first, artificial intelligence giant OpenAI said that it has prevented covert activity that used AI to influence the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in India.
The report from OpenAI said that some activities originating from an Israel-based firm were generating comments that were anti-BJP and praised the opposition Congress party.
The ChatGPT parent company, in its report titled "AI and Covert Influence Operations," said that it identified a campaign from a commercial company in Israel called STOIC, generating content about the Gaza conflict, the Histadrut trade unions organisation in Israel, and the Indian elections.
“In May 2024, we disrupted some activity focused on the Indian elections less than 24 hours after it began,” it said in the report.
The company also said that it disrupted similar misinformation operations originating from China, Russia, and Iran.
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“Over the last three months, our work against deceptive and abusive actors has included disrupting covert influence operations that sought to use AI models in support of their activity across the Internet. These included campaigns linked to operators in Russia (two networks), China, Iran, and a commercial company in Israel,” said the report.
The development drew quick reactions from the ruling BJP. Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, took to X and wrote, “It is absolutely clear and obvious that BJP was and is the target of influence operations, misinformation and foreign interference, being done by and/or on behalf of some Indian political parties. This is a very dangerous threat to our democracy. It is clear vested interests in India and outside are clearly driving this and needs to be deeply scrutinised and investigated and exposed.”
The minister, however, said that the report could have been released earlier. “My view at this point is that these platforms could have released this much earlier, and not so late when elections are ending,” he added.
OpenAI in its report said that it banned a cluster of accounts operating from Israel that were being used to generate and edit content for an influence operation that spanned X, Facebook, Instagram, websites, and YouTube.
This operation targeted audiences in Canada, the United States, and Israel with content in English and Hebrew. In early May, it began targeting audiences in India with English-language content, said the report.
“The operation used our models to generate web articles and social media comments that were then posted across multiple platforms, notably Instagram, Facebook, and X,” it further read.
