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OpenAI doesn’t allow ChatGPT to be used in China. Nor does the Chinese government. But that hasn’t stopped Beijing from routinely employing ChatGPT for nefarious purposes. Over the last year, OpenAI announced that Chinese law enforcement and surveillance units used its tool to gather information about foreign targets and dissidents, and to come up with ideas for surveillance technologies for monitoring minorities.

On Monday, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) said that Chinese spies also appeared to be using ChatGPT in efforts to snoop on foreign reporters covering Beijing.

In the latest case, in May last year, someone posing as a Taiwanese journalist used ChatGPT to research news items, which they later shared with a target as they sought to develop a relationship. The fake journalist was linked by ICIJ and researchers at Citizen Lab to Chinese government hackers, who’ve been carrying out a widespread campaign to surveil enemies........

© Forbes