The American tech giant said it banned Russian and Iranian accounts that had been using ChatGPT models to generate content and fake journalist personas to spread false narratives about the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and sow division.
OpenAI revealed on Thursday it had shut down two influence operations — from Russia and Iran — that used ChatGPT to push fake journalist personas and run a "think-tank" to covertly spread anti-Ukraine propaganda and foster division in the US and Israel over the war in Iran.
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The report is the latest example of how state actors could exploit widely available AI tools to produce and disseminate sophisticated propaganda against adversaries on a mass scale.
The American AI giant said it banned a cluster of ChatGPT accounts that originated in Russia and Iran and were used to support false front entities for geopolitical and conflict-related messaging.
The Iranian operation involved seven fake journalist profiles, each claiming to be from Western countries, including the United States, that were used to plant long-form articles in media outlets around the world.
"We identified almost 100 articles published or syndicated under the operation's bylines across roughly a dozen online outlets around the world," OpenAI said.
"These were small to medium outlets, generally focused on international affairs, geopolitics, and events in the Middle East."
The earliest article identified by OpenAI was published in July 2025 and the latest in October 2026, with the frequency of reports increasing after the US-Iran war broke out earlier this year.
The operation also generated social media comments on topics related to the US-Iran war, it added.
One of the personas named Ervin B. Hoskins, whose bio claimed to be "an American freelance writer," had social media accounts across several tech platforms, including Elon Musk's X and Meta-owned Instagram.
X's transparency information showed the account was connected via a "West Asia android app" and Instagram's transparency information showed the account was based in Iran, according to screenshots provided by OpenAI.
Both accounts appeared to be suspended.
The Russian operation co-opted "unwitting people" in Latin America to run a think-tank called the Social Research Center (SRC). It was used for covert activities aimed at undermining Ukraine's reputation in the region and to influence local politics, the company said.
"The available evidence indicates that the SRC's employees in Latin America were not aware that they were working for a Russian group," OpenAI said.
"The SRC appears to have produced a majority of original content via its co-opted staff. This stands out as the most complex attempt to run a front identity that we've disrupted over the past two and a half years."
The operators used ChatGPT to write internal reports on their activities, create content for their operations and draft reports on the performance of the think tank, as well as to help design and create texts for publishing on social media as posts and comments.
Among the social media activity, say OpenAI, were reactions to Polish far-right MEP Grzegorz Braun proposing that people who showed “anti-Polishness” be declared persona non grata in Poland, in an attempt to sow divisions in Poland over the country’s support for Ukraine.
