- Binance’s CZ has become the latest subject of ChatGPT-driven misinformation.
- The crypto exchange believes the ChatGPT query result is part of a coordinated attack.
- Binance reportedly received inquiries from Congress related to the false claims.
Open AI’s ChatGPT ushered in a new wave of excitement about the potential of artificial intelligence. The chatbot often dominates conversations due to its ability to generate ideas and solve problems. But it is not infallible, as even Open AI warns.
In the latest instance highlighting the flaws of the generative AI application, ChatGPT 3.5, the default model of the chatbot wrongly ties Binance’s Chief Executive Officer Changpeng “CZ” Zhao to the Chinese government.
ChatGPT: CZ Worked For The CNPC
On Monday, May 1, Binance told Fortune that someone was using ChatGPT to launch a misinformation attack against it.
The crypto exchange reported receiving several inquiries from congressional offices last Thursday questioning whether Zhao developed a social media platform for the China National Petroleum Corporation.
Binance stated that, in recent weeks, it had received requests asking if the CEO was a member of the Chinese Communist Party. All queries pointed to results generated by the popular AI chatbot.
Binance’s Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Hillmann reportedly disclosed that the crypto exchange could only generate the cited ChatGPT results by explicitly asking about Zhao concerning the CNPC.
In the conversation Hillmann shared on Twitter, the chatbot claimed that Zhao worked in the CNPC in the 1990s, indoctrinating young people in the CCP’s ideologies. Meanwhile, according to the CSO, Zhao would have been in high school then. ChatGPT backed up its findings with a non-existent Forbes article and LinkedIn profile.
While DailyCoin initially generated some of the above results with the queries shared by Hillmann, ChatGPT no longer yields these results at the time of writing.
Binance is no stranger to attacks over its perceived Chinese links. In March, a Financial Times report claimed that the crypto exchange continued operations in China years after saying it had left Chinese shores.
On the Flipside
- While Binance implies that this is a coordinated attack, there is no clear evidence yet, and ChatGPT is known to make blunders like this occasionally.
Why You Should Care
ChatGPT wrongly linking Zhao to the CCP further highlights the problems of wholly depending on generative AI and the necessity for fact-checking.
If proven to be a coordinated attack, it also underscores how bad actors can use these tools to blur the truth, bringing to the fore recent warnings from experts about the dangers of the unchecked growth of the technology.
In April, Zhao was rumored to be on Interpol’s Red Notice; read more:
Here’s Why CZ Was Rumored to Be on Red Notice
Did Justin Sun try to farm SUI tokens meant for Binance’s retail customers? Find out more:
Crypto Twitter Reacts as Binance Warns Justin Sun Against Farming SUI Tokens