OpenAI bans Russian ChatGPT accounts used in covert misinformation campaign

OpenAI discovered and banned Russian ChatGPT accounts that were part of a coordinated misinformation campaign, which used AI-generated social media posts to promote fake academic work and a 'sovereignty index' that favored Russia. The operators used VPNs (virtual private networks, tools that mask a user's location) to bypass OpenAI's ban on Russian access and prompted the AI in Russian while instructing it to hide linguistic clues of Russian origin. While the immediate reach was limited, OpenAI noted the operation demonstrated how bad actors could use AI to build seemingly credible institutions and spread narratives at scale.