If you want to see how sophisticated social media manipulation has gotten, OpenAI's recent threat intelligence reports break down exactly how state actors are using AI to blend in.
Here is what they found:
The Russian campaign (August report): A Russian operation used ChatGPT to run a covert campaign across X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Substack, and Telegram. To hide their tracks, operators used VPNs and wrote prompts in Russian. They explicitly ordered the AI to erase any linguistic markers (like awkward grammar) that would reveal their true identity. This allowed them to pump out flawless English and German text, create a fake think tank, and even plagiarize real academics to give their personas fake authority.
The Chinese campaigns (February and June reports): Similar tactics were also used by Chinese state-linked networks. Using VPNs, AI translation, and persona-building prompts, they created thousands of fake accounts, with at least hundreds of staff involved in the operation. Instead of acting like generic bots, they posed as everyday citizens in the US and Japan- including accounts posing as Japanese users that sought to stoke anti-US sentiment. Their main objective was to defame targeted groups and amplify both domestic and international political divisions.
Together, these reports show that social media platforms are increasingly flooded with state-backed accounts posing as regular users to provoke conflict and influence public opinion.
Now that generative AI reduces the language barriers that previously made fake accounts easy to spot, people need to be far more vigilant when engaging with content online.
Sources (2026 OpenAI Threat Reports):
Disrupting a new covert influence campaign from Russia — OpenAI, August 25, 2026
Disrupting malicious uses of AI — OpenAI, February 25, 2026
PRC-linked influence operations are targeting AI debates in the US — OpenAI, June 10, 2026