Oct 7 (Reuters) - OpenAI said on Tuesday it has banned

several ChatGPT accounts with suspected links to the Chinese

government entities after the users asked for proposals to

monitor social media conversations.

In its latest public threat report, OpenAI said some

individuals had asked its chatbot to outline social media

"listening" tools and other monitoring concepts, violating the

startup's national security policy.

The San Francisco-based firm's report raises safety concerns

over potential misuse of generative AI amid growing competition

between the U.S. and China to shape the technology's development

and rules.

OpenAI said it also banned several Chinese-language accounts

that used ChatGPT to assist phishing and malware campaigns and

asked the model to research additional automation that could be

achieved through China's DeepSeek.

The Chinese embassy in the U.S. did not immediately

respond to a request for comment on the report.

It also banned accounts tied to suspected

Russian-speaking criminal groups that used the chatbot to help

develop certain malware, OpenAI said.

The Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed startup has disrupted and reported more

than 40 networks since it began public threat reporting in

February last year and its models refused overtly malicious

prompts, the AI company added.

"We found no evidence of new tactics or that our models

provided threat actors with novel offensive capabilities," the

company said in the report.

OpenAI, which now has more than 800 million weekly ChatGPT

users, became the world's most valuable startup at a $500

billion valuation after completing a secondary share sale last

week.