OpenAI Bans Developer For Creating Bot Mimicking US Lawmaker: Report (Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash)
OpenAI, the popular artificial intelligence company, has reportedly banned a developer for creating a bot mimicking Democratic presidential hopeful Dean Phillips. The Washington Post reported that it is the first action taken by the AI firm in response to what it sees as a misuse of its AI tools in a political campaign.
Dean.Bot, powered by ChatGPT, was the creation of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Matt Krisiloff and Jed Somers. As per the report, the duo started a super PAC named We Deserve Better, and the political action committee has received $1 million from billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman. The super PAC then contracted with AI start-up Delphi to develop the AI tool. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, suspended Delphi”s account late on Friday. OpenAI also reportedly noted that the company rules ban the use of its technology in political campaigns. The Washington Post also reported that the developer took down Dean.Bot after the account suspension.
Notably, Dean.Bot has the ability to converse with voters in real-time through a website. It also included a disclaimer explaining that it was an AI tool. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for OpenAI said in a statement to Reuters that the company recently removed a developer account that was knowingly violating its API usage policies, which disallow political campaigning or impersonating an individual without consent.
On January 15, OpenAI unveiled a plan to prevent its AI tools from being used to spread election misinformation. The company made this move as more than 50 countries prepare to cast their ballots in national elections in 2024. As part of the plan, the San Francisco-based startup will introduce digital watermarks on AI-generated images produced using its DALL-E image generator. “We work to anticipate and prevent relevant abuse, such as misleading “deepfakes”, scaled influence operations, or chatbots impersonating candidates,” said OpenAI on its blog.
