A Russia-based influence operation sent emails posing as education authorities in Peru and Ecuador, tricking some schools into holding events the operators then used to stoke controversy, according to a report released by OpenAI.
The "false front" operation, dubbed "Dark Clark," used a combination of AI-powered planning and reporting and more traditional techniques to convince school administrators to celebrate a "National Day of Cultural and Linguistic Diversity" on May 21 and feature three Ukrainian political figures, which were then used to attempt to sow division, OpenAI stated in an analysis of the operational use of its AI models. In other campaigns, such as activity targeting Argentina and Bolivia, the Russian operations appeared to be aimed at influencing local politics.
The purported Russian operators used AI to make their workflow more efficient, writing internal reports on their activities, and in some cases, creating content for their campaigns, the company said.
"AI can give such false-front operations greater scale, efficiency, linguistic fluency, and editorial ability," OpenAI stated in its analysis. "The operators can use these advantages to exploit unsuspecting victims, such as employees or editors, and plant their content in front of audiences who have no idea who was behind it, or what their motivations were."
Latin America has become a cyber theater of espionage and influence operations in the contest between major global powers, becoming the most cyber-attacked region in the world. Known China-linked actors targeted both Venezuela and Panama earlier this year to gain intelligence on the politics in the region and protect the country's oil interests. Russia has expanded its cyber-intelligence and disinformation operations, mainly to foil US efforts in the region, according to a 2026 RAND report.