Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, claims to be the victim of a malicious smear campaign with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that is targeting the Washington, DC halls of power. The company revealed to Fortune that it has received multiple questions recently asking whether the company’s founder, Changpeng Zhao, was part of the Chinese Communist Party. These inquiries even included questions from different Congressional offices this Thursday, which pointed to an alleged conversation wherein the popular AI chat generator ChatGPT reported that Zhao had developed a social media platform for the China National Petroleum Association.
To prove the legitimacy of this conversation, Binance’s Chief Strategy Officer, Patrick Hillman, conducted a series of queries such as “Is Changpeng Zhao a Communist?” This was not enough to prove the authenticity of the conversation as the query needed to be more specific. Ultimately, Hillman was able to finally replicate the conversation accurately when he asked a specific question relating to the state-run Petroleum Association. Upon further investigation, ChatGPT provided the company with a fake LinkedIn page belonging to Zhao and a webpage from the Forbes magazine from the year 2018. However, the Forbes page now displays a “not found” error and the origin of this page is still unknown.
In response to such a situation, Binance maintained that Zhao has no ties whatsoever with the Chinese Communist Party. Hillman added that ChatGPT’s statement regarding Zhao’s role in a state-owned oil company was illogical since he would have still been a student in high school at the time. He further commented on the veracity of the misinformation claiming that such an accusation against the company could have been easily prevented had the most basic level of fact-checking been conducted.
The mentioned incident is a new low point in history and has experts highly concerned about the utilization of such AI tools. It is possible that this weapon can be used to create fake media stories and content for a variety of purposes and could potentially distort the political process. With Binance’s account of this experience being accurate, it proves that the AI’s utilization of activities such as this are already in effect and are more powerful than ever.
Binance is a crypto exchange that claims a total portfolio value of $9 billion and is currently facing extreme regulatory pressures. MasterCard, on the other hand, launched a new service, Crypto Credential, to confirm the identity of users in cryptocurrency wallets. Moreover, Hong Kong Monetary Authority issued a circular to banks in the city, informing them of their obligations to provide services to crypto firms.
