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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsOpenAI’s 2024 election-misinformation plan had three parts: prevent misuse of its AI tools, make AI-generated images easier to identify, and direct people to reliable voting information. The company later reported referrals to voting resources, rejected image-generation requests and action against accounts it linked to an influence operation. Those figures and enforcement findings are OpenAI’s own reports; they do not independently show that the measures reduced election misinformation overall.
OpenAI’s 2024 plan had three pillars
In its January 15, 2024 announcement, OpenAI described its approach as “elevating accurate voting information, enforcing measured policies, and improving transparency.” The plan applied to elections around the world and combined restrictions on how people could use its tools with image-provenance work and referrals to voting information. OpenAI’s announcement set out the initial commitments.
Prevent abuse of ChatGPT and custom GPTs
OpenAI said it would enforce restrictions on political campaigning and lobbying applications while continuing to study the risks of personalized persuasion. Its rules barred builders from creating chatbots that pretended to be real candidates or institutions, misrepresented voting procedures, or discouraged people from participating. OpenAI also said it would red-team new systems, seek feedback from users and external partners, and add safety mitigations before release. Users could report potential violations in GPTs. OpenAI’s 2024 plan described these safeguards as platform policies and development practices, not a guarantee that every harmful use would be prevented.
Make generated images easier to trace
OpenAI said it had implemented C2PA digital credentials for images generated with DALL·E 3. These credentials can carry information about an image’s origin. It also described a provenance classifier as experimental, reporting promising early results in internal tests, including after common image modifications. That was OpenAI’s account of its own testing, not an independent validation of the classifier’s accuracy or ability to identify every altered image. OpenAI’s announcement explained the initial measures.
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Refer voters to reliable information
For some U.S. questions about where or how to vote, ChatGPT would direct users to CanIVote.org through a collaboration with the National Association of Secretaries of State. OpenAI also added a European Parliament voting-information referral for certain procedural questions ahead of the 2024 election. The referral approach was intended to send people to information sources rather than make ChatGPT the final authority on voting logistics. OpenAI’s announcement described the U.S. and European referrals.
What OpenAI said it deployed during the 2024 U.S. election
In a November 8, 2024 update, OpenAI reported the following activity around the U.S. election. These are counts of responses or requests as the company reported them—not independently audited figures, counts of unique people, or evidence by themselves that misinformation fell.
| OpenAI-reported activity | What the figure covered |
|---|---|
| Roughly 1 million responses referring users to CanIVote.org | Responses to U.S. voting-procedure questions during the month before the election. OpenAI’s November 8 update. |
| Around 2 million responses encouraging users to consult sources such as AP and Reuters | Responses to questions about election results on Election Day and the following day. OpenAI’s November 8 update. |
| More than 250,000 rejected DALL·E image-generation requests | Requests for images of President-elect Trump, Vice President Harris, Vice President-elect Vance, President Biden and Governor Walz during the month before Election Day. OpenAI’s November 8 update. |
The figures indicate what OpenAI said its systems did; they do not establish how often users received misleading answers, whether a referral changed anyone’s behavior, or the overall effect on election misinformation.
OpenAI’s report on a covert influence operation
OpenAI said it banned a cluster of ChatGPT accounts linked to Storm-2035, an influence operation it attributed to Iran. The company reported that the operation used ChatGPT to produce longer articles and shorter social-media comments, including commentary about the U.S. election, and published content through websites and social accounts. OpenAI said it saw little engagement and found no evidence of viral reach or a sustained audience. These descriptions, attribution and engagement findings are OpenAI’s reports; they are not an independent assessment of the operation’s reach. OpenAI’s report on Storm-2035 provides the company’s account.
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What provenance tools can—and cannot—establish
C2PA credentials and watermarking can help indicate where content came from, but they do not establish that an image or claim is truthful. OpenAI’s May 27, 2026 update describes SynthID watermarks alongside C2PA metadata and a public verification tool, presenting the methods as complementary. It also says provenance tools are not a complete solution to election deception. OpenAI’s 2026 update explains this later approach.
A provenance signal is one useful clue, not a substitute for checking the claim, the context or the source. Its absence also cannot, by itself, prove that an image was made without AI: content can be copied, modified or shared without its original provenance information.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How the election safeguards have continued since 2024
OpenAI’s May 27, 2026 update says its election work builds on the 2024 approach. It describes plans to provide Associated Press live vote counts in the United States and Brazil in fall 2026, and to work with Democracy Works on U.S. voting and registration logistics. The update states these as plans; it does not establish that either integration has launched. OpenAI’s update outlines the proposed partnerships.
Current policy guidance is more specific about campaign uses than the original announcement. OpenAI’s help article prohibits scaled campaign messaging, automated outreach, message targeting, public-facing campaign chatbots and connecting messaging content to third-party distribution tools. It says human-directed internal work—such as research summaries, administrative tasks, accessibility, cybersecurity and drafting remarks for a person to deliver—is allowed. Policies can change, so consult OpenAI’s current political-campaigning guidance for the latest wording.
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What the evidence does—and does not—show
OpenAI’s announcements and follow-up reports document policies, technical measures, referrals, rejected requests and enforcement actions. They do not provide an independent causal evaluation showing how much those steps reduced election misinformation, or whether any effect generalized across countries, platforms or kinds of content. The distinction matters: a reported action count can show that a system handled requests in a particular way, but it cannot alone establish the broader outcome.
Contemporaneous reporting also stressed implementation. The Associated Press quoted Brennan Center for Justice democracy-program counsel Mekela Panditharatne calling the plan “a positive step toward combating election misinformation, but it will depend on how they are implemented.” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, “We’re going to have to watch this incredibly closely this year. Super tight monitoring. Super tight feedback loop.” The Associated Press report covered the announcement and its reception.
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