- China used ChatGPT to generate comments, posts and cartoons
- The content capitalized on issues related to data centers and pricing
- The material was shared on social media to exacerbate existing tensions.
OpenAI banned a number of accounts that it said were linked to social media influence campaigns surrounding growing opposition to data centers and President Trump’s tariffs on foreign imports.
The two campaigns, titled “Data Center Bandwagon” and “Tech and Tariffs,” used ChatGPT to generate posts, comments, and cartoons intended to sow political division in the United States.
China’s intention was to deepen the divide by driving online engagement with AI-generated posts, OpenAI said, but the campaigns failed to gain traction.
China exacerbates existing tensions
The negative effects of data center construction and the additional costs imposed on consumers by tariffs are points of contention within American society, but these are not narratives invented by China.
Instead, according to OpenAI, these campaigns were designed to increase the scale of the issues and broaden their visibility among online groups and on social media sites such as X.
This is the first time OpenAI models have been used in a Chinese foreign influence campaign, a spokesperson said. Axios.
OpenAI said a Chinese government contractor was responsible for the data center campaign, which shared messages tapping into existing concerns about power grid capacity and electricity prices in areas where data centers were planned or built.
OpenAI’s narrative about a foreign country using AI to capitalize on political issues adds limited validity to recent Republican claims that the entire anti-data center movement is a Chinese influence campaign, but does little to address the very real and tangible effects that data center projects are having on local communities in the United States.
A group of Republicans recently asked FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate anti-data center sentiment, alleging that the rising tide of opposition is fueled by China because the inclusion of similar language regarding water consumption, energy constraints, transparency around approval and the utility bill use “language too similar to be coincidental.”
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