OpenAI says it shut down Russian and Iranian influence campaigns that used fake journalists and a front think tank

OpenAI's report is dated Oct. 8, 2026. It says the company “banned two IO—one from Russia and one from Iran—that used our models in combination with more traditional techniques and technologies to support sophisticated ‘false front’ entities.” OpenAI nicknamed the Russian operation Dark Clark, after a fake persona, Mia Clark, who ran a “Social Research Center.” It nicknamed the Iranian operation Bogus Bylines. Both groups, OpenAI says, used virtual private networks to hide their locations. Every finding in this story is OpenAI's.

OpenAI says the Russian operators mostly used ChatGPT to write internal reports to an unknown boss, and that some of those reports claimed credit for things they did not do. OpenAI says some of the Russian fakes drew fact checks and official denials. Examples it gives: a fake email to schools in Lima, Peru, and a fake water-shutoff audio clip in La Paz, Bolivia. OpenAI links the operators to a Russian network that open-source researchers call Politology.

OpenAI says the Iranian group's social-media comments drew little engagement. It rates that part Category 2 and the article-placement part Category 4. Of the Russian operation it writes: “we would assess the Russia-origin operation as belonging in Category 5. This is the first Category 5 operation we’ve disrupted since we began our reporting.” The scale is the IO Breakout Scale, an outside researcher's 1-to-6 rating, as OpenAI uses it. OpenAI says it has shared information on this case with the relevant authorities. It does not name them.