OpenAI is standing up an election “war room” ahead of the U.S. midterms, the company exclusively told Decoded by Politico. The Election Operations Center will begin running this week and continue until all votes are counted, to identify the potential spread of misinformation or other efforts to disrupt the elections, Politico reported. Politico said the center is meant largely to combat abuse of OpenAI’s own tools, such as ChatGPT, by monitoring real-time events and fielding reports of unexpected behavior from models or suspected violations of the platform’s terms. Politico’s subheadline says the company is bringing hundreds of employees together for the effort.
Josh Lawson, OpenAI’s head of civic and strategic risk, who is leading the center, told Decoded by Politico that it “builds on that yearslong work, bringing our teams together to respond quickly to emerging issues and enforce our policies as people head to the polls.” Politico said the move comes amid broader concerns about AI’s potential to distort next week’s midterm elections through misleading images, audio and video and the spread of misinformation.
The Verge called OpenAI the latest tech company to set up a command center to fight election misinformation and abuse of its systems, ahead of the second major AI-era U.S. election.
OpenAI’s own election safeguards page, updated Oct. 20, does not mention the operations center but describes other midterm measures. It says a Democracy Works integration is live in the U.S., bringing registration, deadlines and polling-place information into ChatGPT with links to official sources, and that an Associated Press integration brings live vote counts into ChatGPT after polls close. OpenAI also said requests for images depicting election interference or discouraging voting now produce stylized, cartoon-like illustrations rather than photorealistic ones. It said it has offered voting-system manufacturers and state election authorities free access to models for cyber defense through its Daybreak program.
On enforcement, OpenAI said its usage policies prohibit election interference, voter demobilization and deception about the origin of AI-generated content, and that when it identifies abuse it takes action including restricting or terminating access. It also said it continues to bar political ads and scaled campaign messaging on its platform.
Politico’s report does not say what findings the center will publish or how it will coordinate with election officials.
AI Tech Daily previously covered the FCC’s consideration of AI political robocalls before the midterms.