OpenAI has suspended the developer of Dean.Bot, a ChatGPT-powered chatbot designed to impersonate Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips.
The bot was created by “clone” startup Delphi and was intended to help Phillips' political campaign, but the move was in direct violation of OpenAI policies and led to the suspension of the developer responsible.
Despite displaying a disclaimer explaining to visitors the nature of the chatbot, the Washington Post made it clear that Dean.Bot's purpose was to engage with potential supporters and spread the candidate's message.
In response, OpenAI confirmed the suspension of the developer's account and highlighted the violation of its policies. The move follows a recent blog post from OpenAI outlining precautions against misuse of its technology, specifically highlighting a ban on “chatbots impersonating candidates” in the lead up to the 2024 election.
Notably, OpenAI's policy goes beyond this specific case, explicitly stating that applications for political campaigning or lobbying are not permitted.
In a crucial election year not only in the US but also in other Western democracies such as the UK, it's not surprising to see OpenAI taking a firm stance against bots that could interfere or spread misinformation.
In response to inquiries, Delphi initially removed ChatGPT from the bot and continued operations using an alternative open-source tool, but following intervention from OpenAI, the chatbot was finally taken down on Friday evening.
Visitors to Dean.Bot's website are informed that the chatbot is inaccessible due to “technical issues,” and are also shown the message: “Sorry, DeanBot is currently campaigning.”
(Image credit: Gage Skidmore under CC BY-SA 2.0 License license)
reference: OpenAI Releases GPT Store for Custom AI Assistants
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