Binance: ChatGPT spreads misinformation about Changpeng Zhao

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance said that ChatGPT has become a tool in a campaign to discredit its chief Changpeng Zhao (CZ). Fortune reports.

According to platform representatives, in recent weeks they have received numerous inquiries about Zhao’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

This included a flood of letters from offices of American congressmen referencing a purported conversation with ChatGPT. The chatbot claimed that CZ developed a social-media platform for the China National Petroleum Corp.

Binance’s Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Hillman said that Binance had tried unsuccessfully to reproduce a conversation with ChatGPT, asking directly about Zhao’s ties to the CCP. However, by formulating a specific question about the state oil company, they were able to uncover the fake claims.

When they asked for sources, ChatGPT produced a fake Zhao LinkedIn page and a link to a Forbes article from 2018.

The page turned out to be unavailable and displayed a ‘Not Found’ error. The page URL suggested it was written by former journalist Pamela Ambler.

It is unclear whether the magazine ever published the story or even if it existed. Forbes and Ambler did not comment on the page’s authenticity.

Binance has long denied ties between Zhao and the CCP. The company called ChatGPT’s claims that Zhao allegedly worked for a state oil company ‘ridiculous.’ According to them, at the time he would have been in high school.

“It’s especially sad to see how a number of people in power are spreading this kind of misinformation when it could be debunked even at the most basic level of fact-checking,” Hillman said.

In April, Binance launched a ChatGPT-based chatbot as part of its online academy.

That same month, Hillman accused Sam Bankman-Fried of spreading false or racist rumors about Zhao prior to the FTX collapse.