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Chinese Official's Use of ChatGPT Revealed a Global Intimidation Opperation (cnn.com)

(Thursday February 26, 2026 @05:40PM (BeauHD) from the authoritarian-playbook dept.)


New submitter [1]sabbede shares a report from CNN Politics:

> A sprawling Chinese influence operation -- [2]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. The Chinese law enforcement official used ChatGPT like a diary to document the alleged covert campaign of suppression, OpenAI said. In one instance, Chinese operators allegedly disguised themselves as US immigration officials to warn a US-based Chinese dissident that their public statements had supposedly broken the law, according to the ChatGPT user. In another case, they describe an effort to use forged documents from a US county court to try to get a Chinese dissident's social media account taken down.

"This is what Chinese modern transnational repression looks like," Ben Nimmo, principal investigator at OpenAI, told reporters ahead of the report's release. "It's not just digital. It's not just about trolling. It's industrialized. It's about trying to hit critics of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] with everything, everywhere, all at once."

Michael Horowitz, a former Pentagon official focused on emerging technologies, said the report from OpenAI "clearly demonstrates the way that China is actively employing AI tools to enhance information operations. US-China AI competition is continuing to intensify. This competition is not just taking place at the frontier, but in how China's government is planning and implementing the day-to-day of their surveillance and information apparatus."



[1] https://slashdot.org/~sabbede

[2] https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/25/politics/chatgpt-china-intimidation-operation



Privacy (Score:2)

by abulafia ( 7826 )

Because their overseers don't have access to ChatGPT logs, would be my guess.

Hegseth successfully forced Anthropic to compromise their integrity because he's a fascist who doesn't respect the rule of law. It really is that simple.

China just threatened to bomb Aussie PM (Score:1)

by vladoshi ( 9025601 )

By sending the threats to the group they wanted to stop performing, avoiding a direct link between Beijing and the threat.

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/24/anthony-albanese-evacuated-from-official-canberra-residence-due-to-security-threat-ntwnfb [slashdot.org]

[1] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/02/26/2045225/url

Trump (Score:1)

by Anonymous Coward

What happens if you criticize Trump? Same thing. Welcome to New China, where the flag is Orange.

Re: (Score:1)

by Anonymous Coward

[1]https://www.nbcnews.com/politi... [nbcnews.com]

[2]https://www.fox26houston.com/n... [fox26houston.com]

Just a couple of examples.

[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-threatened-gop-senators-voted-war-powers-resolution-angry-calls-rcna253491

[2] https://www.fox26houston.com/news/trump-threatens-slotkin-other-members-congress-jail-time-over-video-military

Turtles all the way down (Score:2)

by mhocker ( 607466 )

So the Chinese are impersonating US immigration officials, who are themselves impersonating NYC police for raids on Columbia university. I feel like this is turning into a "turtles all the way down" situation.

Wonder if it's real... (Score:2)

by OneOfMany07 ( 4921667 )

Not that I have reason to believe one way or another (would get brownie points from big orange meanie though).

Could be the CCP was baiting OpenAI to see what they'd do.

Or OpenAI invented it wholesale (wouldn't be that hard to generate using AI, right?).

And I still think any monitoring should be protected somehow from any one individual's actions. Like make it hard to fake records, only allow AI agents to review other user's logs (without a special pointer to specific messages, given out by the monitoring s

Re: (Score:2)

by Ogive17 ( 691899 )

Well - if that official disappears you'll know the truth.

Mother is far too clever to understand anything she does not like.
-- Arnold Bennett