OpenAI, Bans Bot Developers Who Imitulate Democratic Party Presidential Candidates

Congressman Dean Phillips (photo: x @AmbassadorDzung)

JAKARTA - Microsoft-backed OpenAI has banned bot developer who imitates Democratic Presidential Candidate, Congressman Dean Phillips. This is the first act by ChatGPT makers in response to the use of misprinted intelligence (AI) in a political campaign, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, January 20.

"Recently we removed a developer account that deliberately violated our API use policy that prohibits political campaigns or mimics someone without permission," an OpenAI spokesperson said.

Dean.Bot, powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT, was created by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Matt Krisiloff and Jed Somers. They started a super PAC called We Deserve Better which supported Phillips, ahead of the New Hampshire premiere on Tuesday, January 23.

The super PAC has received $1 million from billionaire's hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, calling it the "largest investment I've ever made to support someone running," in a post on social media platform X.

This Super PAC signed an artificial intelligence startup, badminton, to build the bot. OpenAI then suspended its knowledge account on Friday night, noting that OpenAI's rules prohibit the use of its technology in political campaigns. They then deactivated Dean.Bot after the account suspension, according to the report.

We Deserve Better has yet to respond to a request for comment, while Goodminton could not immediately be reached for comment.

Dean.Bot, which is equipped with a denial statement explaining that it is an AI tool, can interact with voters in real-time via a website, is one of the early uses of this emerging technology, which researchers say could cause significant damage to elections, the Washington Post reported.