OpenAI shuts down Russia-linked ChatGPT accounts over ‘covert influence campaign’

OpenAI said Tuesday it shut down a cluster of ChatGPT accounts originating in Russia after uncovering a “covert influence campaign” that used artificial intelligence to promote a purported think tank and narratives favorable to Moscow.

The US artificial intelligence company said the accounts generated social media content promoting the International Burke Institute (IBI), which described itself as an Israel-based “expert community.”

The investigation began with AI-generated social media posts but uncovered a broader operation involving copied and misattributed academic studies, a purported “sovereignty” index that portrayed Russia favorably and efforts to conceal the operators’ Russian origins.

The operators submitted prompts in Russian to produce mostly English-language comments that were later published on Substack, Telegram, X, Facebook and LinkedIn, according to the company.

They also instructed ChatGPT to remove linguistic clues that could reveal they were Russian speakers.

OpenAI said the operators used virtual private networks (VPNs) to access its services, as the company does not allow its models to be accessed from Russia.

Much of the generated material promoted the IBI and articles on its website, which was registered in February 2025.

A review by OpenAI found that 34 of a sample of 36 articles linked to purported experts on the website had been copied from elsewhere. Some were falsely attributed, while others appeared to have been machine-translated from a Slavic language.

The organization’s sovereignty index praised Russia while criticizing Western countries and institutions, including the US, France, Germany and the EU.

OpenAI also found that one operator generated German-language posts criticizing Ukraine, the EU and the German government while advocating closer ties with Russia.

Another operator used the company’s tools to create logos for about a dozen Telegram channels focused on Germany, the US, France, Poland and Türkiye.

The operation had limited immediate impact, with most social media posts receiving few views and the IBI’s official accounts attracting small audiences, OpenAI said.

Some associated Telegram channels, however, had between 10,000 and 20,000 subscribers.

The company said the operation was notable for building an apparently credible institutional structure that could be expanded over time to manufacture authority, obscure the origins of narratives and influence wider audiences.