OpenAI stated that these accounts were used to support a covert online influence operation to spread disinformation. The company discovered the issue by investigating AI-generated social media posts and traced it back to a "broader influence operation." The operation revolved around a website containing plagiarized and misattributed academic works, a "sovereignty index" that portrayed Russia in a favorable light, and efforts to conceal the operators' Russian origin. Although OpenAI prohibits Russian access to its models, the operators disguised their location using VPNs. OpenAI noted that this incident "illustrates how influence actors can use AI as an auxiliary tool to create authority, obscure the source of preferred narratives, and build assets that can scale over time within a broader operation."