AI helped two influence operations scale fake journalists and think tanks
OpenAI says it banned two influence operations, from Russia and Iran, that used AI alongside older deception tactics to push geopolitical messaging through false-front entities. The Iranian operation ran seven supposed journalist personas that pitched articles to smaller outlets and generated batches of social comments; the Russian operation appears to have recruited unwitting people in Latin America to run a think tank, while also creating fake leaked documents and audio scripts. The takeaway is practical: AI made familiar influence workflows easier to run, not fundamentally new.