A Russian internet comedy duo tricked three of OpenAI\u2019s highest ranking military and national security staff into a candid conversation about arming Ukraine. The online pranksters posed as officials from Ukraine\u2019s government, according to a recording of the meeting posted online.<\/p>\n
The Russian comedy duo known as Vovan and Lexus have pulled off a long string of prank telephone calls to famous figures since 2011, with victims ranging from Elton John to John McCain. The group, whose pranks have often aligned with Russian foreign policy priorities, have been accused of working in league with its government<\/a>, a charge they deny.<\/p>\n The latest to fall for their routine were Sasha Baker, who runs national security policy at OpenAI; the company\u2019s lead for strategic initiatives, Caroline Zier; and Ben Crampton, who leads the country\u2019s forays into European national security matters. All three have extensive government experience, with Baker<\/a> and Zier<\/a> taking high-level postings in the Department of Defense, and Crampton<\/a> working in the European Union and United Nations.<\/p>\n \u201cWeeks ago, we launched a thorough investigation into the call\u2019s authenticity,\u201d OpenAI spokesperson Nate Evans said in a statement to The Intercept. \u201cWe acted internally and with the relevant authorities to conclude that it was a prank conducted by individuals with a history of targeting officials and other companies. We took action to prevent similar situations from happening in the future.\u201d (The Ukrainian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)<\/p>\n The Russian prank duo said they arranged a high-level meeting with OpenAI by pretending to be Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Intelligence Service. During their 17-minute video conversation, a recording of which the Russian group uploaded to Rumble<\/a>, the participants discussed OpenAI\u2019s military support to Ukraine to aid its ongoing defense against Russia, including the possibility of providing offensive capabilities.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no question, I think, from our perspective that we want to have as deep a relationship as we possibly can with Ukraine,\u201d Crampton said when asked about selling such offensive military AI services to the country. \u201cBut it may not be possible to get to where we want to be straight away.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a general reluctance on the part of many people who are senior in the company to get too involved in offensive uses of our technology in a military context,\u201d Crampton continued. \u201cPart of our job is to explain that offense and defense are not necessarily distinguishable from each other under certain circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m afraid we probably can\u2019t help you with Elon Musk.\u201d<\/p>\n OpenAI\u2019s ongoing $200 million contract with the U.S. Department of War<\/a> says it provides artificial intelligence applications aimed at \u201cwarfighters\u201d that will \u201cimprove military advantage, military utility, or enhance military decision making,\u201d according to contract documents obtained by The Intercept.<\/p>\n In the conversation with the Russian pranksters, Baker added that the company has been in contact with the Pentagon about aiding Ukraine.<\/p>\n OpenAI officials also mentioned ongoing work with the Ukrainian government based around the company\u2019s Daybreak Blue AI model, a system for fixing computer vulnerabilities, as well as a nascent \u201cpartnership\u201d with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has been some contact with the Ministry of Defense,\u201d Crampton said. \u201cIt\u2019s primarily through a colleague of ours based in Washington as well, who previously had worked with the Delta team in your Ministry of Defense. I think in this field we are interested to partner in as many ways as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n During the video call, both Baker and Zier commented that they had met Umerov previously and were pleased to be speaking to him again. The faux-Umerov appears to have kept his camera turned off for the duration of the meeting.<\/p>\n Vladimir Kuznetsov, the member of the Russian comedy duo known as Vovan, told The Intercept the prank was simple to arrange.<\/p>\n \u201cWe initially contacted a senior Ukrainian official in San Francisco, posing as Mr. Umerov,\u201d Kuznetsov said. \u201cIt turned out that he had been working to establish connections with OpenAI through the Ukrainian diaspora in California. He was already in touch with Sasha Baker, especially since she had maintained close ties with Ukraine during her time at the U.S. Department of Defense. Believing he was speaking with Umerov, the official offered to arrange a meeting with OpenAI.\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019re independent of corporate interests \u2014 and powered by members. Join us. <\/p>\n Join Our Newsletter <\/p>\n Thank You For Joining! <\/p>\n \n Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you. <\/p>\n Will you take the next step to support our independent journalism by becoming a member of The Intercept?\n <\/p>\n By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Use<\/a>.<\/p>\n The conversation touched on other topics, including whether OpenAI could help protect against the influence of Elon Musk, and President Donald Trump\u2019s sentiments on the war.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m afraid we probably can\u2019t help you with Elon Musk,\u201d said Baker. \u201cHe\u2019s not a fan of our CEO either, if it helps you at all. So, we\u2019re in the same boat.\u201d<\/p>\n Of Trump\u2019s increasingly icy stance on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Baker said, \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate. Of course, we\u2019ve been reading in the news the back and forth and the comments from the U.S. president. But I do want to reassure you that I think the majority of the U.S. government, the U.S. people certainly, and our researchers are very supportive of Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Russian internet comedy duo tricked three of OpenAI\u2019s highest ranking military and national security staff into a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[19686,19683,19695,19687,19685,19692,19693,19694,19689,19690,19691,19684,19688],"class_list":["post-69849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-article-type-article-post","tag-day-wednesday","tag-language-english","tag-medium","tag-page-type-article","tag-partner-factiva","tag-partner-smart-news","tag-partner-social-flow","tag-subject-national-security","tag-subject-technology","tag-subject-world","tag-time-23-00","tag-wc-0-999"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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