OpenAI, a US-based artificial intelligence research organisation said that an Israeli commercial company attempted to influence Indian voters by generating content that criticised the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and praised the Congress party while Lok Sabha elections were underway in May. The seven-phase election began on April 19.
OpenAI also said the campaign did not “appear to have meaningfully increased” their audience engagement and that they disrupted the activity in less than 24 hours after it began.
In a report released on May 30, OpenAI stated, “A commercial company in Israel called STOIC, generating content about the Gaza conflict, and to a lesser extent the Histadrut trade unions organisation in Israel and the Indian elections. We have nicknamed this operation “Zero Zeno” for the founder of the stoic school of philosophy, and to reflect the low levels of engagement that its various campaigns attracted.”
According to OpenAI, the operation used its models to generate web articles and social media comments which were to be posted across multiple platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and X. “The network appears to have flipped its accounts from one topic to another. For example, accounts which had earlier posted about Canada switching focus to the USA, India or the Histadrut (or more than one of these),” the report noted.
The AI research organisation said it disrupted four such operations other than “Zero Zeno” which includes Bad Grammar and Doppelganger (Operations from Russia targeting Ukraine), Spamouflage (Chinese threat actor posting content across the internet to praise China and criticise critics) and International Union of Virtual Media (Iranian threat actor posting web content that supported Iran criticising Israel and the US).
Responding to this revelation, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar expressed his disappointment saying that OpenAI could have released this shocking report earlier, and not so late when elections were concluding. The final phase of the elections will conclude on June 1. Seeking an investigation into the matter, he said, “It is absolutely clear and obvious that the BJP was and is the target of influence operations, misinformation and foreign interference, being done by and/or on behalf of some Indian political parties,” he said.