China-linked accounts used ChatGPT to help create fake Facebook personas, avoid detection: OpenAI

SCOPING FOR SURVEILLANCE

The other campaign on tech and tariffs went further than content and report generation. Its operators asked ChatGPT to propose a concept for an AI system to surveil online public opinion – one that would automatically collect what they defined as “harmful” information from “key persons” on social media, said OpenAI.

The operators wanted this system to store logs, download videos for automated content analysis and also send risk notifications. OpenAI said its model produced only a general 500-word response on data storage and management, and did not provide ideas on how to collect data for surveillance purposes.

This request bore similarities to a case OpenAI outlined in an October 2025 threat report, in which Chinese government entities sought help drafting an “early warning” system to track the travel of people categorised as Uyghur-related and “high-risk”.

OpenAI also observed content overlap between this tech and tariffs campaign and earlier China-origin activity targeting the Philippines. In 2024, a video that circulated widely on social media purportedly showed Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr “sniffing” illegal drugs – which was eventually debunked by deepfake experts as inauthentic. The October 2025 OpenAI report then found inauthentic accounts reviving this 2024 falsehood to criticise Marcos.

The overlap stemmed from a single X account who posted a cartoon slamming Trump’s tariffs and had also shared the Marcos material earlier.

OpenAI noted however that this was insufficient to conclusively establish a connection, though it reinforced the impression that there was a “nexus of activity” on X aimed at amplifying influence efforts from China.

OpenAI said both campaigns sit within a broader pattern of AI misuse originating from China that it has disrupted over recent years. In February, the firm flagged that an account linked to Chinese law enforcement had tried to use ChatGPT to plan an influence operation against Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

OpenAI noted that the campaigns had occurred against the backdrop of escalating US-China economic and technology competition, and following a key Communist Party meeting that elevated AI as a strategic priority under China’s next five-year plan.

In concluding its report, the tech firm said it was “ironic” that the operators behind the campaigns had used American AI – rather than Chinese models – to generate content attacking American AI.

“We are not in a position to determine what drove this choice,” said OpenAI.