Cybersecurity & Tech

Lawfare Daily: OpenAI’s Shutdown of State-Backed Information Operations with Alex Iftimie

Scott R. Anderson, Alex Iftimie, Jen Patja
Thursday, June 6, 2024, 8:00 AM
Discussing OpenAI's response to state-backed information operations using its AI services

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
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On today’s episode, Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson sits down with Alex Iftimie, a Deputy General Counsel at OpenAI, to talk over their recent report revealing that OpenAI has shut down several state-backed information operations using OpenAI’s artificial technology services. They discussed the operations themselves, how OpenAI is investigating and responding to such activities, and what they tell us about how the nascent artificial intelligence industry is impacting state-backed information operations, among other types of problematic behavior.

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Scott R. Anderson is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a Senior Fellow in the National Security Law Program at Columbia Law School. He previously served as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State and as the legal advisor for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.
Alex Iftimie is an associate general counsel at OpenAI. He was formerly a U.S. Department of Justice national security official and served as a partner and co-chair of the Global Risk + Crisis Management practice at Morrison & Foerster LLP.
Jen Patja is the editor and producer of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security. She currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics, a nonprofit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in Virginia by promoting constitutional literacy, critical thinking, and civic engagement. She is the former Deputy Director of the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier and has been a freelance editor for over 20 years.

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