OpenAI Report Links ChatGPT Abuse to Chinese Law Enforcement Harassment and Smear Operations

OpenAI reported that a ChatGPT account linked to Chinese law enforcement used the model to review and edit internal write-ups on so-called “cyber special operations,” which OpenAI assessed as activity consistent with covert influence operations and transnational repression aimed at harassing and silencing critics of the Chinese Communist Party. The uploaded materials described a sustained, resource-intensive campaign involving hundreds of staff, thousands of fake social-media accounts, mass content generation, and tactics such as flooding platforms with fraudulent complaints against dissidents, forging documents, and in some cases impersonating U.S. officials to intimidate targets. OpenAI said the activity was tied to a single account, which it banned.

OpenAI also described an attempted smear/propaganda operation targeting Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, where the actor prompted ChatGPT for plans to amplify negative commentary on social media and to draft messages from fake accounts to pressure other Japanese politicians; when the model refused, the actor’s later prompts suggested the operation proceeded using other AI models. Separately, OpenAI attributed another cluster of accounts likely originating from mainland China that used ChatGPT to seek information on U.S. persons, online forums, and federal building locations, and to draft emails posing as a Hong Kong-based firm (Nimbus Hub Consulting), with OpenAI noting indicators such as VPN usage and prompts written in Simplified Chinese.