OpenAI to help fight fake news during polls

SAN FRANCISCO — ChatGPT maker OpenAI has said it will introduce tools to combat disinformation ahead of the dozens of elections this year in countries that are home to half the world's population.

The explosive success of text generator ChatGPT spurred a global artificial intelligence revolution, but also triggered warnings that such tools could flood the internet with disinformation and sway voters.

With elections due this year in countries including the United States, India and Britain, OpenAI said on Monday it will not allow its technology — including ChatGPT and image generator DALL-E 3 — to be used for political campaigns.

"We want to make sure our technology is not used in a way that could undermine" the democratic process, OpenAI said in a blog post.

"We're still working to understand how effective our tools might be for personalized persuasion," it added.

AI-driven disinformation and misinformation are the biggest short-term global risks and could undermine newly elected governments in major economies, the World Economic Forum warned in a report released last week.

Fears over election disinformation began years ago, but the public availability of potent AI text and image generators has boosted the threat, experts say, especially if users cannot easily tell if the content they see is fake or manipulated.

OpenAI said on Monday it was working on tools that would attach reliable attribution to text generated by ChatGPT, and also give users the ability to detect if an image was created using DALL-E 3.

OpenAI said ChatGPT, when asked procedural questions about US elections such as where to vote, will direct users to authoritative websites.

"Lessons from this work will inform our approach in other countries and regions," the company said.

Agence France-Presse has previously debunked deepfakes and doctored videos of US President Joe Biden announcing a military draft and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton endorsing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for president.

Agencies via Xinhua