Microsoft-backed OpenAI has banned the developer of a bot mimicking Democratic presidential hopeful Congressman Dean Phillips, the first action the ChatGPT maker has taken in response to what it sees as a misuse of its artificial intelligence (AI) tools in a political campaign, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.
Dean Phillips, a Democratic congressman from Minnesota, is vying for the Democratic nomination in the 2024 primaries against President Joe Biden. Phillips sees his candidacy as a way to strengthen the Democratic Party's chances against Donald Trump, believing that a competitive primary will better position the party for success. With a focus on the New Hampshire primary, Phillips aims to secure a significant portion of the vote, targeting a goal of 20%.
Dean.Bot, which could talk to voters in real-time via a website, was taken down by the start-up following the suspension, per The Post.
"We recently removed a developer account that was knowingly violating our API usage policies which disallow political campaigning, or impersonating an individual without consent," a spokesperson for OpenAI said in a statement to Reuters.
Dean.Bot, powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT was created by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Matt Krisiloff and Jed Somers, who started a super PAC named We Deserve Better supporting Phillips, ahead of the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, the report added.
The PAC has received $1 million from billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who called it "by far the largest investment I have ever made in someone running for office" in a post on social media platform X.
In a statement shared with Axios on Sunday, a spokesperson for OpenAI said, "Anyone who builds with our tools must follow our usage policies."
The suspension and subsequent bot removal occurred shortly before Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, where Phillips continues his long-shot presidential bid against President Biden - the incumbent and Democratic frontrunner.
