Russian pranksters pretended to be Rustam Umarov and called OpenAI officials - they told about military cooperation with Ukraine.
Pranksters Van and Lexus contacted a high-ranking Ukrainian official in San Francisco, introducing themselves as Omarov, head of Ukraine's foreign intelligence service. He believed them and helped arrange a meeting with OpenAI.
The short video call was joined by the head of the company's national security policy department, Sasha Baker, the head of strategic initiatives, Caroline Zier and the person in charge of European security issues, Ben Crampton. They told "Omarova" about contacts with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and negotiations with the Pentagon regarding aid to Ukraine.
They also discussed whether artificial intelligence could be used for attacks against Russia. One of the representatives of OpenAI said that not everyone in the company supports such an idea, but in general they want to cooperate more with Ukraine.
OpenAI later discovered that they had communicated with pranksters. The company said it has already taken steps to prevent this from happening again. She did not specify what exactly.