The US-based AI pioneer said it had identified the accounts using ChatGPT to generate short comments in English and Filipino, which were later posted on Facebook and TikTok. It dubbed the operation “High Five” because many of the comments included emojis, according to a report released on June 5.
“The comments this operation generated and posted online were brief but partisan. Typically, they praised President Marcos and his initiatives, or criticised [Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio],” OpenAI wrote in its report.
The company also noted that some comments nicknamed the vice-president “Princess Fiona”, possibly in reference to the Shrek movie series. Memes portraying Duterte-Carpio as the ogre princess from the films have been circulating online in recent years.
OpenAI said the operation appeared to follow a three-stage process.
First, the actors used ChatGPT to analyse social media posts about political developments involving Marcos Jnr and asked the model to suggest themes for replies. Next, they used the model to generate huge quantities of short comments – typically no more than 10 words – based on those themes. Finally, they prompted ChatGPT to produce public relations pitches and statistical analyses for “covert influence operation”.
