Chinese police have detained a man for allegedly generating fake news of a train crash and disseminating it online using artificial intelligence technology, in what was reported to be China’s first arrest for misuse of ChatGPT.
Police in northwestern Gansu province said in a statement on Sunday that a suspect surnamed Hong had been detained for “using artificial intelligence technology to concoct false and untrue information”.
The case first caught the attention of the cyber division of a county police bureau when they spotted a fake news article that claimed nine people had been killed in a local train accident on April 25, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
The cybersecurity officers in Kongtong county found the article simultaneously posted by more than 20 accounts on Baijiahao, a blog-style platform run by Chinese search engine giant Baidu. The stories had received more than 15,000 clicks by the time it came to authorities’ attention, it said.