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OpenAI shuts down Russian and Iranian influence operations
It rates the two campaigns 5 and 4 on its six-point impact scale, the first it has called high impact.
OpenAI said on Thursday 8 October 2026 that it had banned accounts tied to a Russian and an Iranian influence operation that used ChatGPT, NPR reports. The company rated them 5 and 4 on its six-point impact scale, CyberScoop notes, the first time it has reported campaigns it considers high impact; most score 1 or 2.
The Russian network targeted Latin America, where it tricked schools and stoked tension between Ukraine and Poland, OpenAI told NBC News. Its operators mostly used ChatGPT to write progress reports for their superiors, according to OpenAI. In one, they claimed to have posed as a regional education authority in Peru and persuaded schools to hold events featuring Stepan Bandera, a divisive Ukrainian nationalist. A Polish report on one such event drew a response from a Polish member of the European Parliament. The group also ran a supposed think tank whose local staff, OpenAI says, did not know they worked for a Russian operation.
The Iranian campaign, which OpenAI likens to a for-hire commercial operation, invented at least seven journalist personas. They placed almost 100 articles, mainly about the US-Iran war, across roughly a dozen small and mid-sized outlets, CyberScoop and NPR report.
Editors and brands that accept contributed articles now have a case, documented by OpenAI, of AI-assisted pitches under invented bylines reaching real publications.
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Alexandre S.
Alexandre S. is a creative ad strategist and copywriter with ten years' experience in digital marketing across multiple channels.