A sprawling Chinese influence operation — accidentally revealed by a Chinese law enforcement official’s use of ChatGPT — focused on intimidating Chinese dissidents abroad, including by impersonating US immigration officials, according to a new report from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.
OpenAI has identified that ChatGPT has being used from networks associated with CCP headquarters, and fabricates a plausible story for the press to show how useful their data can be for US military intelligence.
The timing of this news story is too good to not be an attempt to get hold one of those Pentagon contracts Anthropic has been offered (and might lose), with all means necessary.
Regardless of the actual truth, I am just curious about the overall optics of this. Why would OpenAI (implicitly) admit that they are spying on their users, and show that they are willing to share it with the press?
Most arguments for surveillance (and all authoritarianism) boil down to either saving the children or fighting an eternal enemy. Obviously OpenAI does surveil all its users, but the “for the children” argument would hurt their user numbers (I wanted to say it would hurt their profits, but they don’t profit off of any user). Thus, it’s “but China” instead.
The timing of this news story is too good to not be an attempt to get hold one of those Pentagon contracts Anthropic has been offered (and might lose), with all means necessary.
Regardless of the actual truth, I am just curious about the overall optics of this. Why would OpenAI (implicitly) admit that they are spying on their users, and show that they are willing to share it with the press?
Most arguments for surveillance (and all authoritarianism) boil down to either saving the children or fighting an eternal enemy. Obviously OpenAI does surveil all its users, but the “for the children” argument would hurt their user numbers (I wanted to say it would hurt their profits, but they don’t profit off of any user). Thus, it’s “but China” instead.