Vetting fail allows $1bn OpenAI hoax onto regulated news service
The London Stock Exchange was left red faced yesterday after a fake announcement popped up on its official channel purporting to reveal a $1bn investment into ChatGPT owner OpenAI.
The fictitious press release appeared on the exchange’s news platform, where listed firms post regulated updates, falsely claiming that US private equity firm Ripplewood had made an investment into the West Coast AI outfit.
City PM understands the announcement had been pulled onto the platform via one of the bourse’s partner organisations, EQS, and slipped through a vetting process.
The announcement was pulled from the platform after the error was realised.
“We were made aware of a potentially erroneous press release being displayed on the London Stock Exchange website and other news platforms,” an LSEG spokesperson told City A.M. in a statement.
“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.”
Ripplewood has now called in lawyers to investigate the appearance of the OpenAI release, the Evening Standard reported.
CEO and founder Tim Collins told the newspaper: “This is illegal. We have contacted the authorities.”