OpenAI busts Russia's fake "Israel think tank" AI influence op
OpenAI banned a cluster of Russia-linked ChatGPT accounts behind an unusually elaborate covert influence campaign: a fake Israel-based "International Burke Institute" padded with copied and misattributed academic work, plus a "sovereignty" index flattering Moscow and criticizing the West. Operators prompted in Russian, ordered ChatGPT to erase any Russian linguistic traces, and used VPNs to dodge the Russia access ban. Reach was small, but the setup marked a shift: classic influence tradecraft, now run with AI at its core.