{"id":3832,"date":"2024-05-31T13:03:51","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T18:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.darkreading.com\/threat-intelligence\/openai-disrupts-5-ai-powered-state-backed-influence-ops"},"modified":"2024-05-31T13:03:51","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T18:03:51","slug":"openai-disrupts-5-ai-powered-state-backed-influence-ops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/index.php\/2024\/05\/31\/openai-disrupts-5-ai-powered-state-backed-influence-ops\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI Disrupts 5 AI-Powered, State-Backed Influence Ops"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eu-images.contentstack.com\/v3\/assets\/blt6d90778a997de1cd\/blt62db2842fc13805b\/665a052ff8700f3eb4494de8\/Puppeteer-Spencer_Whalen-Alamy.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/openai-disrupts-5-ai-powered-state-backed-influence-ops.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/openai-disrupts-5-ai-powered-state-backed-influence-ops.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\">OpenAI has identified and upset five influence operations using its artificial intelligence (AI) tools in one way or another.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\">The various operations \u2014 from China, Iran, Israel, and two from Russia \u2014 focused on spreading political messaging. As OpenAI reports, they <\/span><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\"><a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/openai.com\/index\/disrupting-deceptive-uses-of-AI-by-covert-influence-operations\/\" rel=\"noopener\">primarily used AI to generate text<\/a><\/span><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\"> such as social media posts and comments, as well as carried out some productivity tasks, like debugging code.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\">None of them were particularly effective, however. On the <\/span><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\"><a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/articles\/the-breakout-scale-measuring-the-impact-of-influence-operations\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Brookings Breakout Scale<\/a><\/span><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\">, which measures the <\/span><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\"><a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.darkreading.com\/threat-intelligence\/three-year-iranian-influence-op-preys-divides-israeli-society\" rel=\"noopener\">impact of influence operations<\/a><\/span><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\"> on a scale of 1 to 6, none scored higher than a 2. A score of 1 means the campaign spread only within a single community or platform, while a 6 means triggering a policy response or some other form of concrete action, like violence. A 2 means the operation spread across multiple communities on one platform, or one community across multiple platforms.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_h2 ContentText_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-text\" id=\"The Current State of AI-Driven Influence Ops\">The Current State of AI-Driven Influence Ops<\/h2>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\">The influence operations in question, while geographically diverse, ultimately were rather similar in nature:<\/span><\/p>\n<div data-component=\"basic-list\" class=\"BasicList BasicList_nestedLevel_0 BasicList_variant_unordered BasicList_limited\">\n<ul data-testid=\"basic-list-unordered\" class=\"BasicList-UnorderedList\">\n<li>\n<div class=\"BasicList-ListItem BasicList-ListItem_variant_unordered\" readability=\"8.4129353233831\"><span data-component=\"icon\" data-name=\"Circle\" class=\"BasicList-ListIcon BasicList-ListIcon_variant_unordered\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"BasicList-Item\" readability=\"12.398009950249\">\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\">Among the most notorious of them is <\/span><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\"><a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.darkreading.com\/application-security\/meta-vs-china-social-giant-cripples-chinese-disinformation-apt\" rel=\"noopener\">Spamouflage, from China<\/a><\/span><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\">. It used OpenAI tooling to debug its code, research social media activity, and post content to X, Medium, and Blogspot in multiple languages.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"BasicList-ListItem BasicList-ListItem_variant_unordered\" readability=\"8.5\"><span data-component=\"icon\" data-name=\"Circle\" class=\"BasicList-ListIcon BasicList-ListIcon_variant_unordered\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"BasicList-Item\" readability=\"12\">\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\">Bad Grammar, a newly discovered threat from Russia, operated primarily on Telegram, targeting individuals in Eastern Europe and the United States. It also used AI to debug code it employed to run a Telegram bot and write political comments on Telegram in both Russian and English.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"BasicList-ListItem BasicList-ListItem_variant_unordered\" readability=\"9.5\"><span data-component=\"icon\" data-name=\"Circle\" class=\"BasicList-ListIcon BasicList-ListIcon_variant_unordered\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"BasicList-Item\" readability=\"14\">\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\">A second Russian group, Doppelganger, used AI to post comments on X and 9GAG in five European languages, plus generate headlines, and translate, edit, and convert news articles into Facebook posts.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"BasicList-ListItem BasicList-ListItem_variant_unordered\" readability=\"8\"><span data-component=\"icon\" data-name=\"Circle\" class=\"BasicList-ListIcon BasicList-ListIcon_variant_unordered\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"BasicList-Item\" readability=\"11\">\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\">An Iranian entity, known as the International Union of Virtual Media (IUVM), used AI for generating and translating articles, as well as headlines and website tags for its site.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"BasicList-ListItem BasicList-ListItem_variant_unordered\" readability=\"7.6\"><span data-component=\"icon\" data-name=\"Circle\" class=\"BasicList-ListIcon BasicList-ListIcon_variant_unordered\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"BasicList-Item\" readability=\"11.2\">\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\">Finally there&#8217;s Zero Zeno, an operation run by Stoic, a Tel Aviv-based political marketing and business intelligence company. Stoic <\/span><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\"><a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/benimmo\/status\/1796228425427874271\" rel=\"noopener\">used OpenAI to generate articles and comments<\/a><\/span><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\"> for Instagram, Facebook, X, and other websites.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\">Stoic has also drawn attention lately from Meta. In <\/span><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\"><a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/scontent-iad3-2.xx.fbcdn.net\/v\/t39.8562-6\/445235204_402858536059630_7403303878106178024_n.pdf?_nc_cat=100&amp;ccb=1-7&amp;_nc_sid=b8d81d&amp;_nc_ohc=_0EQxNr1HaUQ7kNvgEbUg1u&amp;_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-2.xx&amp;oh=00_AYClQFpxjSTVEx9D1rB9LYIUGVQ37YzTLmvKrEzdSg85HQ&amp;oe=665FBFFF\" rel=\"noopener\">its latest &#8220;Adversarial Threat Report,&#8221;<\/a><\/span><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\"> Meta reported taking down 510 Facebook accounts, 32 Instagram accounts, 11 pages, and one group associated with the company. Only around 2,000 accounts followed its various Instagram accounts. About 500 accounts followed its Facebook pages, and less than 100 joined its Facebook group.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\">To combat AI misuse, OpenAI wrote in a <\/span><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\"><a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/downloads.ctfassets.net\/kftzwdyauwt9\/5IMxzTmUclSOAcWUXbkVrK\/3cfab518e6b10789ab8843bcca18b633\/Threat_Intel_Report.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\">more detailed report<\/a><\/span><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\"> that it is collaborating with industry partners, and using threat activity to design more secure platforms for users. The company also &#8220;invest[s] in technology and teams to identify and disrupt actors like the ones we are discussing here, including leveraging AI tools to help combat abuses.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><span class=\"ContentText ContentText_variant_bodyNormal\" data-testid=\"content-text\">The report does not go into any further detail, but Dark Reading has reached out to OpenAI to clarify what it does, precisely, to disrupt and combat malicious actors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.darkreading.com\/threat-intelligence\/openai-disrupts-5-ai-powered-state-backed-influence-ops\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OpenAI has identified and upset five influence operations using its<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":3833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[809],"class_list":["post-3832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dark-reading"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/openai-disrupts-5-ai-powered-state-backed-influence-ops-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1350&ssl=1",2560,1350,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/openai-disrupts-5-ai-powered-state-backed-influence-ops-scaled.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/openai-disrupts-5-ai-powered-state-backed-influence-ops-scaled.jpg?fit=300%2C158&ssl=1",300,158,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/openai-disrupts-5-ai-powered-state-backed-influence-ops-scaled.jpg?fit=640%2C338&ssl=1",640,338,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/openai-disrupts-5-ai-powered-state-backed-influence-ops-scaled.jpg?fit=640%2C338&ssl=1",640,338,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/openai-disrupts-5-ai-powered-state-backed-influence-ops-scaled.jpg?fit=1536%2C810&ssl=1",1536,810,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/openai-disrupts-5-ai-powered-state-backed-influence-ops-scaled.jpg?fit=2048%2C1080&ssl=1",2048,1080,true],"chromenews-featured":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/openai-disrupts-5-ai-powered-state-backed-influence-ops-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C540&ssl=1",1024,540,true],"chromenews-large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/openai-disrupts-5-ai-powered-state-backed-influence-ops-scaled.jpg?resize=825%2C575&ssl=1",825,575,true],"chromenews-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/openai-disrupts-5-ai-powered-state-backed-influence-ops-scaled.jpg?resize=590%2C410&ssl=1",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"Dark Reading","author_link":"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/index.php\/author\/darkreading\/"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/index.php\/category\/uncategorized\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Uncategorized<\/a>","tag_info":"Uncategorized","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/openai-disrupts-5-ai-powered-state-backed-influence-ops-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1350&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}