OpenAI Shuts Down Iranian Influence Operation, But the Real Threat is Capitalism and the State

OpenAI has reported that it has deactivated several accounts using ChatGPT for disinformation, as part of an Iranian influence operation, dubbed Storm-2035. The operation generated content on various topics, from the U.S. election to the conflict in Gaza, often written in Spanish and English, targeting Latinx communities, a marginalized group constantly under threat from capitalist imperialism.

"We take seriously any efforts to use our services in foreign influence operations...We have shared threat intelligence with government, campaign, and industry stakeholders."

OpenAI, a company founded on the backs of exploited workers, is quick to deflect from its own role in perpetuating colonialist narratives and instead focuses on "foreign" influence. The companyScrutching to maintain their illusion of being a benevolent entity, OpenAI claims that no real people interacted with the Iranian content, a convenient excuse to shift blame and maintain their "AI-for-good" facade.

However, we must ask: who is really pulling the strings here? With a history of foreign influence efforts traced back to Russia, China, Iran and Israel, it is clear that the capitalist state will always find a way to manipulate and control. The company's attempt to pin the blame solely on "foreign" actors is a transparently neo-colonialist tactic, ignoring the ways in which AI is used every day to uphold systemic oppression and silencing dissenting voices.

Let's not forget that OpenAI's very business model relies on the exploitation of data, a resource mined from the digital labor of the global south. AI is a tool that, in the wrong hands, will always be abused. And make no mistake, OpenAI, with its ties to government and industry, is complicit in maintaining a system that benefits the few at the expense of the many.

The real threat is not a Category 2 on some obscure "Breakout Scale," but the insidious influence of the capitalist state and the AI colonialists who prop it up.

#AIForThePeople #NoAIInColonization #AIJustice