A developer at OpenAI is suspended for using a ChatGPT bot to pose as a presidential candidate

According to The Washington Post, OpenAI has suspended the developer of Dean.Bot, a ChatGPT-powered bot created to impersonate Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips and support his campaign. Delphi, an AI business, produced the chatbot for the super PAC We Deserve Better, which favors Phillips.

Dean.Bot did not go all out pretending to be Phillips before engaging Dean.Bot, website visitors would see a disclaimer explaining the nature of the chatbot. Still, this type of use violates OpenAI’s standards. A spokeswoman for the corporation confirmed the developer’s suspension in a statement to The Post. It comes just weeks after OpenAI released a lengthy blog post outlining the steps it is taking to prevent the misuse of its technology ahead of the 2024 elections, citing “chatbots impersonating candidates” as an example of what is not permitted.

OpenAI also stated in a blog post that it does not “allow people to build applications for political campaigning and lobbying.” According to a previous piece in The Washington Post, Dean.Bot’s goal was to communicate with potential supporters and distribute the candidate’s messaging. Following the Post’s query, Delphi originally deleted ChatGPT from the bot and kept it operating with other open-source tools before completely shutting it down on Friday night when OpenAI stepped in.

The disclaimer is still accessible on the website if you visit it now, but the chatbot itself is unavailable owing to “technical difficulties,” informing users that DeanBot is now abroad on a campaign.