ChatGPT blocked 250,000 generations of photographs of presidential candidates

In this photo illustration, the OpenAI logo is displayed on a mobile phone screen with a photo of Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.

Didem Mente | Anadolu | Getty Images

OpenAI estimates that ChatGPT rejected more than 250,000 requests to generate images of the 2024 US presidential candidates in the run-up to Election Day, the company said in a blog on Friday.

The rejections included image generation requests involving President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Vice President-elect JD Vance, OpenAI said.

The rise of generative artificial intelligence has raised concerns about how misinformation created using this technology could impact the numerous elections taking place around the world in 2024.

According to data from Clarity, a machine learning company, the number of deepfakes has increased by 900% year-over-year. Some included videos created or paid for by Russians to disrupt the U.S. election, U.S. intelligence officials say.

In a 54-page October report, OpenAI said it had “disrupted more than 20 operations and fraudulent networks from around the world that attempted to exploit our models.” The threats ranged from AI-generated website articles to social media posts from fake accounts, the company wrote. None of the election-related actions were able to generate “viral engagement,” the report said.

In its Friday blog, OpenAI said it had seen no evidence that covert operations aimed at influencing the outcome of the U.S. election using the company's products could successfully go viral or build a “sustainable audience.”

Lawmakers were particularly concerned about misinformation in the age of generative AI, which emerged in late 2022 with the launch of ChatGPT. Large language models are still new and routinely output inaccurate and unreliable information.

“Voters generally should not turn to AI chatbots for information about voting or the election – there are far too many concerns about accuracy and completeness,” Alexandra Reeve Givens, CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology, said last week to CNBC.

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