OpenAI has reported that hackers associated with the Chinese government attempted to execute a phishing attack on its employees.

The artificial intelligence firm disclosed this incident on Wednesday, October 9, in a report detailing its efforts to mitigate "disruptive uses" of its technology.

According to the report, earlier this year, OpenAI thwarted a phishing attempt by a suspected China-based threat actor known as "SweetSpecter," who tried to deceive employees by impersonating a ChatGPT user in need of assistance.

Spear phishing, a more targeted form of phishing, aims to extract personal information through deceptive emails. The report indicated that the emails sent under the guise of support requests contained malware intended to capture sensitive data.

The report noted that OpenAI's security team reached out to employees believed to be targeted in this spear phishing effort and confirmed that existing security measures successfully blocked the malicious emails from reaching their corporate inboxes.

Additionally, the report addressed attempts to use ChatGPT for propaganda purposes aimed at influencing elections globally.

For instance, in August, the company disrupted a "covert Iranian influence operation" that produced social media comments and lengthy articles concerning the U.S. election, as well as issues related to the Gaza conflict, Western policies towards Israel, and political matters in Scotland and Venezuela.

The report stated, "To date this year, we have not seen any instances of election-related influence operations gaining viral traction or establishing sustained audiences through our models."

In February, OpenAI revealed that, in collaboration with its partner and primary investor Microsoft, it had thwarted five state-sponsored attacks: two linked to China and the others associated with North Korea, Iran, and Russia.

This latest report from OpenAI was released just two days after the National Security Agency (NSA) announced its involvement in a broader investigation into potential targeting of American telecommunications firms by Chinese hackers.

This year has witnessed several reports highlighting threats to critical infrastructure in the United States. Notably, last month revealed a hacking initiative known as “Salt Typhoon,” which was aimed at acquiring sensitive information and had successfully infiltrated certain American internet service providers.

This breach involved an intrusion into U.S. broadband networks, allowing cybercriminals to establish a presence within the network, thereby gaining access to data held by telecommunications companies and enabling them to execute cyberattacks.

“This represents a concerning — yet not entirely unexpected — escalation in their malicious cyber activities aimed at gaining an advantage over the United States,” stated Glenn Gerstell, former general counsel at the NSA, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in September.