OpenAI disrupts Israeli firm over propaganda content

By Yasin Gungor

ISTANBUL (AA) - OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, announced on Thursday that it had banned a political influence campaign originating from Israel.

“We banned a cluster of accounts operated from Israel that were being used to generate and edit content for an influence operation that spanned multiple platforms,” OpenAI stated.

The influence operation organized by a company named STOIC involved creating and disseminating anti-Hamas and pro-Israel content. It also targeted the UN Palestine agency (UNRWA) and pro-Palestinian protesters at US universities across various social media platforms and websites.

OpenAI revealed that the network used its artificial intelligence (AI) models to generate articles and comments, which were then posted on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and X.

“Some of the content created by this network was posted on social media in reply to prominent Western figures on both sides of the political spectrum,” OpenAI noted. “These replies generally bore no relation to the original post, indicating an attempt to manipulate online discourse.”

OpenAI stressed the commitment to monitoring and addressing misuse of its technology to ensure it is not exploited for deceptive practices.

The Israeli firm STOIC has not yet responded to requests for comment on the allegations.

Previously, Facebook's parent company Meta announced it has removed hundreds of fake Facebook accounts operated by the same Israeli company.