OpenAI banned a cluster of Russian ChatGPT accounts that used VPNs to bypass access restrictions and run an influence operation, generating social media content to promote a fictitious Israeli think tank called the International Burke Institute (IBI). The operation centred on a fabricated "Sovereignty Index" designed to portray Russia favourably and criticise Western nations, with content distributed across platforms including Telegram, X, and LinkedIn, though it reached only relatively small audiences. OpenAI noted that while AI played a limited direct role in content creation, it helped expose the broader infrastructure the actors had built to manufacture credibility and obscure their Russian origins.
