ChatGPT developer OpenAI has published a new security report alleging that, in essence, its own tools are being deployed against it. The company's June 2026 threat report is titled "PRC-linked influence operations are targeting AI debates in the US," and claims that China-based actors are using ChatGPT to whip up anti-data-centre, anti-tariff, and anti-US sentiment online.
OpenAI says it has "banned a cluster of ChatGPT accounts that likely originated in China and used ChatGPT to generate social media content for a covert influence operation." What were they up to? Well, generating a lot of bad AI political cartoons, for one thing.
These users would—writing in simplified Chinese, the standard form of the written language in mainland China—ask ChatGPT to generate political cartoons that took aim at, for instance, spiking electricity costs caused by AI data centres and Donald Trump's vindictive behaviour toward notional American allies.
The tech was also used to generate antisemitic memes about "Jewish capital" dictating American policy, and to besmirch Chinese dissidents. ...
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