OpenAI Suspends Accounts in China and North Korea Due to Concerns Over Malicious Activities

On Friday, OpenAI announced that it had suspended accounts belonging to users from China and North Korea, whom the artificial intelligence firm suspects were utilizing its services for harmful activities, such as surveillance and influencing public opinion.

According to OpenAI’s report, these activities represent means by which authoritarian governments might exploit AI technologies against both the United States and their citizenry, with the company employing AI tools to uncover these operations.

The firm did not disclose how many accounts were terminated or the timeframe in which these actions took place.

In one case, individuals allegedly had ChatGPT produce Spanish-language news articles that criticized the United States, which were subsequently published by prominent news organizations in Latin America under a Chinese company’s name.

In another scenario, malicious actors, possibly linked to North Korea, generated resumes and online profiles for fake job seekers using AI, aiming to deceitfully obtain employment at Western firms.

A different group of ChatGPT accounts, which seemed to be linked to a financial fraud scheme in Cambodia, employed OpenAI’s technology for translating and creating posts on social media and communication platforms, including X and Facebook.

The U.S. government has raised alarms regarding China’s purported deployment of artificial intelligence to suppress its citizens, disseminate false information, and jeopardize the security of the United States and its allies.

With over 400 million weekly active users, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has become the leading AI chatbot on the market. The company is currently in negotiations to secure as much as $40 billion at a valuation of $300 billion, potentially marking a record-breaking fundraising round for a private entity.

By Anna Tong