First ChatGPT arrest in China over fake train crash news

Chinese police have detained a man for allegedly generating fake news of a train crash and disseminating it online using artificial intelligence technology to “concoct information” and post it on multiple accounts, in what was reported to be China’s first arrest for misuse of ChatGPT.

Police in northwestern Gansu province said in a statement on Sunday that a suspect surnamed Hong had been detained for “using artificial intelligence technology to concoct false and untrue information”.

The case first caught the attention of the cyber division of a county police bureau when they spotted a fake news article that claimed nine people had been killed in a local train accident on April 25, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Monday.