Ripples ran through the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on Monday as the FBI received an alert about an alleged fraudulent announcement involving a $1bn investment in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. Ripplewood Advisors called the U.S. law enforcement agency after the fake press release emerged on the LSE website.
Fake London Stock Exchange announcement triggers call to FBI
The questionable news snippet surfaced via EQS, a German-based outfit that reports on financial news. It alleged that Ripplewood, an established New York-based investment company, wanted to source ChatGPT technology to plot market trends and drive investment decisions. An extract from this news release read: “Through the use of artificial intelligence, investors should benefit from greater accuracy in forecasting market developments.”
Once EQS sounded the alarm, LSE removed this article and stated:
We were made aware of a potentially erroneous press release being displayed on the LSE website and other news platforms. The non-regulatory press release originated from one of our newswire partners and upon notification from them, the press release was deleted from our website.
EQS also issued a statement in which it confirmed it deactivated the account behind this article and continues to investigate the matter. The same account published an earlier article, submitting that Ripplewood is extending its European endeavours. Appointing lawyers, Ripplewood aims to put a stop to this alleged impersonation, which seems to be using the company’s name to generate fraudulent funds.
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Presently, OpenAI is a hot commodity on global markets as the AI frenzy continues. This company is worth roughly $29bn, thanks to the marked success of its ChatGPT.
