OpenAI has taken decisive action against the misuse of its artificial intelligence tools in political campaigns.
The developer of a bot imitating Democratic presidential hopeful Congressman Dean Phillips was banned, marking OpenAI’s first response to such misuse in a political context.
OpenAI enforces policy against AI’s use in political campaigns
The Washington Post reported this development, highlighting the emerging concerns around AI’s role in politics.
OpenAI’s decision to remove the developer’s account was based on violations of their API usage policies, which strictly prohibit political campaigning and impersonation without consent.
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OpenAI bans developer for misusing ChatGPT in political bot creation
The company’s spokesperson told Reuters, “We recently removed a developer account that was knowingly violating our API usage policies, which disallow political campaigning or impersonating an individual without consent.”
Dean.Bot, leveraging OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology, was created by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Matt Krisiloff and Jed Somers.
Bill Ackman funds super PAC for New Hampshire primary
They established a super PAC named We Deserve Better to support Phillips in the New Hampshire primary. The PAC attracted substantial funding, including $1 million from billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman.
Ackman described the investment as “by far the largest investment I have ever made in someone running for office” in a post on social media platform X.
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Super PAC’s contract with AI startup and bot takedown
We Deserve Better contracted with AI startup Delphi to build Dean.Bot.
However, following OpenAI’s suspension of Delphi’s account, citing the ban on using its technology in political campaigns, Delphi subsequently took down Dean.Bot.
At the time of the report, We Deserve Better had not responded to requests for comment, and Delphi could not be immediately reached.
AI in politics: Dean.Bot raises election integrity concerns
Dean.Bot was designed to interact with voters in real-time through a website, accompanied by a disclaimer clarifying its AI nature.
This instance represented an early adoption of AI in political engagement, a technology researchers warn could significantly impact elections.
The Washington Post noted the potential harms such technology could pose to the electoral process.
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