OpenAI says it banned a cluster of accounts originating in Russia that used ChatGPT to support a covert influence operation across Latin America. The company says available evidence suggests that local staff working for a self-described research group did not know Russian operators controlled it.
OpenAI calls the campaign “Dark Clark,” after a fake persona named Mia Clark that it says managed the Social Research Center (SRC). The site presented itself as a research group studying the Indian diaspora and relations between India and Latin American countries. The operators’ reports referred to hiring, pay scales and research projects; OpenAI found more than 60 SRC articles, most of which appeared to be original work.
ChatGPT’s main role was helping the operators draft internal reports about their operation and the Social Research Center, OpenAI says. They also occasionally asked it to prepare campaign material. In a section titled “Creating fakes,” the report describes a request to draft a Russian-language letter alleging corruption by Ukraine’s honorary consul to Panama, translate it into Spanish and write an audio script. OpenAI says a matching letter and voice-over later appeared on TikTok. The report does not independently establish whether the allegation in that letter was true.
OpenAI says it found public stories and posts matching some fakes the operators claimed to have spread; some drew fact checks or official denials. It could not corroborate other claims, and it found cases where the operators took credit for unrelated events. OpenAI assigned the operation Category 5 on the six-level Breakout Scale. Brookings defines Category 5 as amplification by high-profile figures such as celebrities or political candidates.
Image: Works Progress Administration, Federal Art Project, designed by Vera Bock, “WPA rumor” poster (1939–1941), from the Library of Congress; public domain in the United States. Historical illustration, not a depiction of the operation.
Sources
OpenAI’s report on the Dark Clark operation; Brookings’ Breakout Scale.