OpenAI suspends bot developer over political misuse

[luciaverde]

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft-backed OpenAI has banned the developer of a bot mimicking Democratic presidential hopeful congressman Dean Phillips, the first action the ChatGPT maker has taken in response to what it sees as a misuse of its artificial intelligence (AI) tools in a political campaign, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

“We recently removed a developer account that was knowingly violating our API usage policies which disallow political campaigning, or impersonating an individual without consent,” a spokesman for OpenAI said in a statement to Reuters.

Dean.Bot, powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT was created by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Matt Krisiloff and Jed Somers, who started a super PAC named We Deserve Better supporting Phillips, ahead of the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, the report added.

The PAC has received US$1 million from billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who called it “by far the largest investment I have ever made in someone running for office” in a post on social media platform X.

The super PAC, had contracted with AI start-up Delphi to build the bot. OpenAI suspended Delphi’s account late on Friday, noting that OpenAI’s rules ban the use of its technology in political campaigns. Delphi took down Dean.Bot after the account suspension, the report added.

- More -

That’s a fair move by OpenAI. Using AI to imitate real politicians could easily mislead people. It’s good they stepped in early. AI should be used to help, not confuse — like how companies such as Holland & Barrett use tech responsibly to share health information and wellness advice, not spread misinformation.