An Israeli firm, STOIC, has been implicated in generating online comments that focus on Indian politics, particularly criticizing the ruling BJP party and praising the opposition Congress party. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, reported that they disrupted the use of their platforms by STOIC for conducting propaganda activities. These activities included generating pro-Congress and anti-BJP content to influence public opinion and potentially disrupt the election process.
OpenAI’s report, titled “AI and Covert Influence Operations: Latest Trends,” details how actors in cyberspace are leveraging artificial intelligence to manipulate public sentiment.
According to the report, STOIC used OpenAI’s models to produce large quantities of short comments, which were then disseminated across various social media platforms including Telegram, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram.
Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar responded to the revelations made by OpenAI, labeling the actions as a “very dangerous threat to our democracy.” He said that the BJP has been a target of influence operations, misinformation, and foreign interference, driven by both domestic and international vested interests. Chandrashekhar called for a deep investigation and exposure of these activities.
In his statement on X, Chandrashekhar said, “It is absolutely clear and obvious that @BJP4India was and is the target of influence operations, misinformation and foreign interference, being done by and/or on behalf of some Indian political parties. This is a very dangerous threat to our democracy. It is clear vested interests in India and outside are clearly driving this and needs to be deeply scrutinized/investigated and exposed.”
Chandrashekhar also criticized the timing of the disclosure, suggesting that the platforms should have released this information earlier, rather than waiting until the elections were concluding. He said that earlier disclosure could have mitigated the influence of these operations on the election process.
