China is trying to influence the AI data center debate in the United States. How effective it’s been is another question.
X said on Thursday that it uncovered a 200,000-strong Chinese bot farm and that a couple hundred of those accounts posted disparaging content about data centers “in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy.”
What X didn’t disclose, according to Darren Linvill, a researcher at Clemson University, is that at least 59 of those bots had zero engagement and were likely quickly deactivated by X before they could garner a following.
While it’s still possible some X users saw the posts, Linvill described it as a “non-story.”
“No real humans saw these posts about data centers,” Linvill told Business Insider.
Linvill said he used a Clemson platform that retains data from suspended X accounts to search for an obscure hashtag used by the bots featured in screenshots X posted in its disclosure. He also identified bot accounts by checking whether they shared AI-created images flagged by X as part of the Chinese campaign.
That hashtag, “capacityauction,” returned 90 posts, all of which were created in January, according to a spreadsheet of the data Linvill shared with Business Insider. Each account posted only “two or three times each” before X suspended them, Linvill said.
Many AI evangelists in Silicon Valley, right-wing influencers, and Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary, who is developing a data center in Utah, have promoted the narrative that a Chinese propaganda campaign is fueling anti-data center sentiment in the United States.
“There is absolutely, without a question, bipartisan — broad bipartisan — grassroots activity against data centers,” said Samuel Woolley, a researcher who studies social media and propaganda at the University of Pittsburgh.
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent on Friday.
Linvill is a co-director of Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub, which studies online disinformation campaigns. He said it’s clear that China is attempting to influence the American public, but said the operation hasn’t been successful.
“You can’t move an oil tanker with a rowboat,” Linvill said. “And right now, the conversation about data centers is the oil tanker.”
Large data centers, which provide compute for AI models, have come under bipartisan scrutiny in recent weeks as Americans across the country fight them in local town hall meetings and protest them at rallies.
In a Gallup poll released in May, over 70% of respondents reported opposing data center construction in their area. Members of that group said they worried about energy and water consumption, but also reported an overall dislike of AI.
Politicians have responded to that backlash as November’s midterm elections draw near, issuing moratoriums on AI data center construction.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot, once a supporter of AI data center development in the state, has recently changed his tune, instructing the state’s utility commission and grid operator to protect residents from the infrastructure costs associated with the facilities. Abbott said his new requirements have prevented some 1,800 AI data centers from being built in the state.
Examples of Chinese bots provided by X on Thursday included accounts posting content saying data centers drive up electricity bills and strain the energy grid — major talking points among anti-data-center activists.
Linvill said some of those posts were the same ones referenced by OpenAI in a June report it released about Chinese accounts using ChatGPT to generate anti-data center content.
“They’re very, very clearly connected,” Linvill said. “OpenAI identified it back in June.”
Woolley said the only reports he’s seen about Chinese AI data center propaganda have come directly from Big Tech companies, which he said have a “vested interest” in data center development in the United States. X is owned by Elon Musk, whose companies rely on data centers to power their products.
“We have to take research that’s potentially political with a pinch of salt,” he said.
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