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Chinese police arrested a man this week accused of using ChatGPT to generate a fake news article posted across social media, the first time authorities have enforced a recently passed law related to artificial intelligence, CNBC reported.

Officials alleged that the man fabricated a news story about a train crash that caused nine deaths. They said they found more than 20 accounts had posted this article on a blogging platform owned by Chinese search giant Baidu and these had garnered more than 15,000 views.

Police added that the man used the chatbot to create slightly altered versions of the fake news article to pass duplication checks on the platform.

The arrest underscores China’s efforts to regulate and control the use of advanced AI technology. The man is being charged under new legislation governing “deep synthesis technologies” which China introduced this year as ChatGPT was gaining traction.

The new regulation describes deep synthesis technologies such as AI that can be used to generate text, images, video or other media. The rules strictly prohibit the use of deep synthesis services to spread fake news.

China is trying to introduce rules on new technologies that could become a threat to the government.

While ChatGPT is blocked in China, users can try to access the chatbot through virtual private networks to bypass the country’s Internet restrictions.

ChatGPT is a chatbot developed by the US-based corporation OpenAI that is built on generative AI technology, which allows the software to produce replies depending on human prompts and inquiries.

Chinese tech companies are trialing their own rivals to ChatGPT. However, analysts told CNBC that firms have been more careful in their approach and have targeted certain uses in order to not run afoul of regulators.