Observed Signal · Feb 1, 2025 · Technical Release · Source: OpenAI Blog · Impact: 4/5 · Sentiment: Negative
OpenAI report: Iranian influence used ChatGPT cross-platform
A security report describes multiple ChatGPT accounts used to generate content for Iranian-linked influence operations, primarily STORM-2035 and IUVM. OpenAI investigators found that banned accounts produced long-form articles and social posts published across several websites and X accounts, in Arabic, French, Spanish and English. One account produced content for both STORM-2035-linked sites and an IUVM-linked site, suggesting operator-level overlap. Published material was largely pro-Palestinian/pro-Hamas/pro-Iran and hostile to Israel and the US; some content praised Bashar al-Assad during a reported regime collapse. In at least one case operators rephrased model outputs before publishing, and overall the network showed low audience reach (e.g., an al-Sarira X account had 157 followers as of 2025-01-16). The activity was assessed as low-impact on the Breakout Scale (low end of Category 2).
Demonstrates misuse of large language models to produce cross-platform influence content and detection-evasion rewrites, raising brand-safety and content-moderation risks for platforms and advertisers.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Multiple ChatGPT accounts were used to generate content for Iranian-linked influence operations identified as STORM-2035 and IUVM.
- One banned account generated content for both STORM-2035-linked properties and an IUVM-linked website, indicating operator overlap.
- Generated outputs included long-form articles posted on al-sarira.com, tweets posted by al-Sarira and other X accounts, Spanish articles for lalinearoja.net, French texts for critiquepolitique.com, and English articles on iuvmpress.co.
- Content themes were typically pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas, pro-Iran, anti-Israel and anti-United States; some posts praised Bashar al-Assad during his reported regime collapse.
- Impact was low: as of 2025-01-16 the al-Sarira X account had 157 followers, and the operation was rated at the low end of Category 2 on the Breakout Scale.
Connected Companies & Entities
1 Entity mapped“This website is linked to IUVM, which Reuters first exposed in 2018....”
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