In a first, Chinese police arrested a man for allegedly using ChatGPT to generate fake news of a train crash and disseminate it online. According to northwestern Gansu province police, a suspect surnamed Hong had been detained for 'using artificial intelligence technology to concoct false and untrue information'.
The incident came to light when the cyber division of a county police bureau spotted the fake news article claiming the death of nine people in a local train accident on April 25, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Monday.
The cybersecurity officers in Kongtong county found the article simultaneously posted by more than 20 accounts on Baijiahao, a blog-style platform run by Chinese search engine giant Baidu. The stories had received more than 15,000 clicks by the time they came to authorities’ attention, it said.
The Gansu public security department said Hong was suspected of the crime of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble", a charge that normally carries a maximum sentence of five years. But in cases that are deemed especially severe, offenders can be jailed for 10 years and given additional penalties, the Post reported.
This is the first time the public has been made aware of an arrest by Chinese authorities after Beijing’s first provisions to regulate the use of 'deepfake' technology officially took effect in January, it said.
The police said they traced the origins of the article to a company owned by the suspect Hong, which operated personal media platforms registered in Shenzhen in Guangdong province in southern China.
Some 10 days later a police team searched Hong’s home and his computer and detained him.
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