US elections: OpenAI blocked over 250,000 requests for candidate images

This was part of an effort to reduce interference

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay (with added cat face element courtesy of Canva)

OpenAI reported that ChatGPT blocked over 250,000 requests to generate DALL-E images of U.S. presidential candidates in the month leading up to the 2024 election, aiming to reduce interference.

Here are some key points:

• Blocked images included those of prominent figures like Trump, Harris, Biden, and others.

• On election day, ChatGPT redirected 2 million users to trusted news sources, like the Associated Press and Reuters, and directed over a million users to CanIVote.org for unbiased voting information in the preceding month.

• OpenAI emphasized these "guardrails" as essential for preventing misuse of their tools during sensitive periods.

• Concerns over deepfakes led to major industry and legislative responses, including YouTube's development of deepfake detection tools and California’s new laws criminalizing election-related deepfake disinformation.