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Incident 939: AI-Powered Chinese Surveillance Campaign 'Peer Review' Used for Real-Time Monitoring of Anti-State Speech on Western Social Media

Description: OpenAI reportedly uncovered evidence of a Chinese state-linked AI-powered surveillance campaign, dubbed "Peer Review," designed to monitor and report anti-state speech on Western social media in real time. The system, believed to be built on Meta’s open-source Llama model, was detected when a developer allegedly used OpenAI’s technology to debug its code. OpenAI also reportedly identified disinformation efforts targeting Chinese dissidents and spreading propaganda in Latin America.

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Alleged: Various open-source AI developers , Meta , Chinese state security researchers and OpenAI developed an AI system deployed by Chinese state-linked actors and Chinese Communist Party, which harmed Western social media communities , Social media users in Latin America , social media users , Opposition voices against the Chinese Communist Party , Chinese dissidents and Cai Xia.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Peer Review , OpenAI models , LLaMA and ChatGPT

Incident Stats

Incident ID
939
Report Count
6
Incident Date
2025-02-21
Editors
Daniel Atherton

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

+3
OpenAI Uncovers Evidence of A.I.-Powered Chinese Surveillance Tool
+2
OpenAI says Chinese AI monitors social media posts critical of the country
OpenAI Uncovers Evidence of A.I.-Powered Chinese Surveillance Tool

OpenAI Uncovers Evidence of A.I.-Powered Chinese Surveillance Tool

nytimes.com

OpenAI finds new Chinese influence campaigns using its tools

OpenAI finds new Chinese influence campaigns using its tools

axios.com

OpenAI bans Chinese accounts using ChatGPT to edit code for social media surveillance

OpenAI bans Chinese accounts using ChatGPT to edit code for social media surveillance

engadget.com

OpenAI says Chinese AI monitors social media posts critical of the country

OpenAI says Chinese AI monitors social media posts critical of the country

mezha.media

OpenAI Bans Accounts Misusing ChatGPT for Surveillance and Influence Campaigns

OpenAI Bans Accounts Misusing ChatGPT for Surveillance and Influence Campaigns

thehackernews.com

OpenAI uncovers evidence of AI-powered Chinese surveillance tool

OpenAI uncovers evidence of AI-powered Chinese surveillance tool

startupnews.fyi

OpenAI Uncovers Evidence of A.I.-Powered Chinese Surveillance Tool
nytimes.com · 2025

OpenAI said on Friday that it had uncovered evidence that a Chinese security operation had built an artificial intelligence-powered surveillance tool to gather real-time reports about anti-Chinese posts on social media services in Western c…

OpenAI finds new Chinese influence campaigns using its tools
axios.com · 2025

OpenAI spotted and disrupted two uses of its AI tools as part of broader Chinese influence campaigns, including one designed to spread Spanish-language anti-American disinformation, the company said.

Why it matters: AI's potential to superc…

OpenAI bans Chinese accounts using ChatGPT to edit code for social media surveillance
engadget.com · 2025

OpenAI has banned the accounts of a group of Chinese users who had attempted to use ChatGPT to debug and edit code for an AI social media surveillance tool, the company said Friday. The campaign, which OpenAI calls Peer Review, saw the grou…

OpenAI says Chinese AI monitors social media posts critical of the country
mezha.media · 2025

OpenAI has reported the exposure of a Chinese government operation that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor anti-Chinese content in real time on Western social media, The New York Times reports.

The AI-based system, which the resea…

OpenAI Bans Accounts Misusing ChatGPT for Surveillance and Influence Campaigns
thehackernews.com · 2025

OpenAI on Friday revealed that it banned a set of accounts that used its ChatGPT tool to develop a suspected artificial intelligence (AI)-powered surveillance tool.

The social media listening tool is said to likely originate from China and …

OpenAI uncovers evidence of AI-powered Chinese surveillance tool
startupnews.fyi · 2025

OpenAI said Friday that it had uncovered evidence that a Chinese security operation had built an artificial intelligence-powered surveillance tool to gather real-time reports about anti-Chinese posts on social media services in Western coun…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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