OpenAI says fake accounts from China tried to turn Americans against data centers

[highplainsdem]

Source: Engadget

OpenAI has published a report about ChatGPT users, who it says were likely based in China, that used the chatbot to plan a campaign designed to sway Americans' opinions about AI data centers. It divided the users into two clusters, the first of which it had designated the "Data Center Bandwagon" group. Accounts categorized in the group allegedly asked ChatGPT to generate English-language talking points and images, such as comic strips, which focus on how AI data centers drive up demand in electricity and how that leads to higher bills for consumers. 

The company says these users posed as Americans from a variety of backgrounds on social media, where they had posted the text and image output they got from ChatGPT. OpenAI believes they're part of a social media team at a private Chinese company working for local government clients. They apparently even uploaded a file to the chatbot describing their objectives and strategies on how to sway public opinion and how to establish fake social media accounts without getting detected.

-snip-

It's worth noting that while the users most likely used inauthentic accounts to post on social media, the company says they posted links to "legitimate news stories about the power grid operator's capacity auctions and data center power demand." The rise of electricity costs in towns and cities near AI data centers is a very real concern and is one of the first effects of the AI boom that people felt firsthand. According to a Bloomberg report, electricity now costs as much as 267 percent more for a month compared to five years ago in areas close to data centers, because their energy demands outstrip supply. 

-snip-

OpenAI admits the campaigns failed to gain much authentic engagement and that they haven't exactly shifted public opinion. Based on OpenAI's report itself, they focused on real issues that are already controversial and discussed widely online in the first place. The company explains that the reason these campaigns are significant is because the "operators attempted to covertly insert themselves into an ongoing American debate about the future of the country's AI capabilities while hiding who they were and what motivated them." As for why the campaigns chose to use an American AI chatbot instead of, say, DeepSeek, even OpenAI couldn't tell. "We are not in a position to determine what drove this choice," its report reads.



Read more: https://www.engadget.com/2191966/openai-china-influence-campaigns-against-data-centers-report/

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Wow, what convenient "proof" for the AI industry and the Trump regime and GOP that opposition to data centers is driven by Chinese propaganda. Especially with the Chinese propagandists dumb enough to use an American chatbot AND upload "a file to the chatbot describing their objectives and strategies on how to sway public opinion and how to establish fake social media accounts without getting detected."

The comments already posted on Engadget are skeptical of this story from OpenAI.

As they should be.

[Ocelot II]

1. I don't need Chinese propaganda to oppose data centers.

[rampartd]

2. how many data centers do they need?

i really don't need any of this.

[Hugin]

6. I am still trying to figure out who the end users of a data center would be.

So, far it really seems like either getting someone else to pay for their crypto mining or yet another red sports car for the inadequate.

[FakeNoose]

16. The investors are people who think they'll make $ billions in a short time, and then dump it the next year

... before it starts losing money and all the bills are due. There's no way they will ever be profitable unless they stiff the creditors and fire their employees.

[Hugin]

5. I like the sentiment...

Unfortunately it’s just a little too long for a tee shirt.

[dalton99a]

25. +1

[UpInArms]

28. Truly

Why anyone would support a monster that destroys the quality of life, consumes extremes amounts of energy and water, along with 24/7 jet turbine noise and light pollution is beyond me.

[patphil]

29. That was my first thought. These data centers are resource hogs, and environmental disasters.

The biggest question I have is, "How did we manage to live all these years without them?"
I think the propaganda is in getting us to believe we need them, and opposition to them is due to our being manipulated by some foreign government.
The explosive growth of data centers, without any oversight or control is definitely dangerous. What are they being used for, and why are so many being built so quickly?

[Karasu]

40. No one should. Hell, the article itself admits the issues with data centers are all legitimate, despite what China may

or may not be doing. I couldn't care less whether a foreign country is trying to "influence" Americans when our own government is going out of its way to try to prevent ANYONE from regulating AI.

[Scrivener7]

3. Sure, Jan.

[Alice B.]

24. Literally came here to say this, lol

[DBoon]

4. and OpenAI is an objective, unbiased source

Right.

[thesquanderer]

18. Yup, headline can make you wonder, is it true, or is AI spreading disinformation to try to save itself? (n/t)

[Ray Bruns]

7. Somehow I think this is bullshit.

[JBTaurus83]

8. I actually trust China to handle AI better

Which is really saying a lot about what a shit hole this country is.

[Ritabert]

9. I don't listen to "fake accounts" from China. I don't trust AI all on my own.

[Faux pas]

10. Yeah Sure Ya Betcha

[tanyev]

11. And how many fake accounts are out there cheerleading for data centers?

🤨

[C Moon]

14. I've seen a lot. They were very active on TikTok last week.

[DownriverDem]

12. Americans are

against data centers. China has nothing to do with it. When you search on Google leave a space & put -AI at the end of the search.

[hlthe2b]

13. As one actively fighting data centers in Colorado--or in any other draught-stricken area of the West,

I sure as hell don't need Chinese propaganda. The TRUTH is bad enough.

Of course to anyone fighting climate change impacts or MEGA BIG CORPORATIST OLIGARCHY, apparently we are just led by the nose by Chinese "instigators."

BULLSHIT. And to hell with these data centers.

[mdbl]

15. Is China also printing my over-inflated power bills because of the data centers 20 miles from me

They are so full of shit.

[dalton99a]

26. +1

[Martin68]

17. Interesting. This could be true, but almost impossible to prove or to separate Chinese influence from that actual

reactions of the people. My instinct is that people are rightfully concerned about the effects of enormous energy-hungry data centers on their own neighborhoods and quality of life.

[JBTaurus83]

19. Not to mention eye sores

Messing with people’s property values is the quickest way to turn them against you. Any Dem governor that supports building these may as well count themselves out of the presidential primary.

[Martin68]

21. "Eye-sores" are a quality of life issue...

[JBTaurus83]

23. Yes they are

And I’d be pissed as all hell if they put one of these things near my home.

[Martin68]

37. Me, too.

[ananda]

20. LOL. Sounds like reverse psychology...

to get people on side.

[GiqueCee]

22. Consider this...

... we are dealing with corporatists, tech bros, and oligarchs, and there isn't an honest nanoparticle among the whole fuckin' bunch of 'em. So, given what we know about these scurrilous weasels, it makes sense to assume the worst motives imaginable, and then double it. No, FOURPLE it!
People are making AI memes on their home computers. They don't need a 64-square-mile data center to do that. Even scaling AI up to gigundo dimensions, ya gotta wonder.
I would posit that the massive capacity and resource usage that will cripple surrounding communities is going to be devoted to expanding surveillance capabilities on everyone in the country, and then, ultimately, the whole fucking world, to an unimaginably astronomical degree at commensurate costs. Those costs, of course, will be passed on to those being surveilled, whether they like it or not. ICE is just the beginning of how such ruthless control will be instituted.
Total dominion over every aspect of our lives is the goal, but let's just call it "POWER" for short. In order to impose the Feudalism 2.0, which these psychopaths think they're entitled to do, they have to maintain complete control. We are little more than livestock to them; they've already demonstrated that in more ways than we can count, so complacent sheep will be put to work, and live in camps, while recalcitrant rams will be lunchmeat. Soylent Green, if you will. Younglings can Google that, while they're still allowed to Google anything. Trump wants – well, actually, the architects of Project 2025 want – their useful idiot to demand complete control and censorship of the Internet. That's already been reported, so it ain't like Chicken Little's imagined disaster; it's as real as a heart attack. Whether or not he's successful remains to be seen, but he'll sure as hell try.
These people are soulless monsters, and they've come too far, and invested too much, to just let it slip through their claws, so, boy, Howdy, it's gonna get ugly before it gets better.
Keep in mind that, even if you are paranoid, it doesn't mean they ain't after you.
Have a nice day.

[ImNotGod]

27. BS, I don't need bots to know that the uber rich tech bros are ruining the environment and increasing mt energy bills

with their AI crapola.

[BoomaofBandM]

30. Was reading about centers planned for Wisconsin.

Interest is because the land is cheap and water is plentiful. I guess that would be the farming and grazing land as well as land next to the great lakes. I guess not anything to worry about up here...

[Progressive dog]

31. The Chinese opposition to data centers

doesn't make those centers use less electricity. The Chinese opposition to data centers doesn't make our governments give smaller tax breaks to these centers. The Chinese opposition doesn't make the centers use less water for cooling or make less noise. Electric costs go up for everyone near those centers and the centers reduce the amount of water available to the people living near these sites.
With or without the Chinese opposition, people who will be living near these sites oppose them by large majorities.
The rich stupid people pushing data centers for AI are trying to sell a reason for building so many of them and for sticking the poorer people with much of the cost.
Maybe the Chinese are against data centers in the US and I don't care.

[Retrograde]

32. See? It's becoming more and more human

Now it's skewing its replies so that they most benefit it

[Nigrum Cattus]

33. 100% high grade bullshit

The corporate billionaire losers are so inept that they probably
used a.i. to come up with this desperate attempt to gaslight
us. There is no legitimate reason to have the number/size of
any "data" centers.
In 2000, scientists estimated that the entire printed contents of the U.S. Library of Congress would take up 10 terabytes of memory. And a petabyte (2 50 bytes) of memory could hold roughly one copy of all of the printed information in the world.
The average 1st gen data centers hold over 1,000 terabytes

[reACTIONary]

38. FYI ....

.... the necessity is not primarily data storage, its computing capacity.

To perform AI training / execution requires a huge parallel processing array of very high end graphics processing units (GPUs). It turns out that the sort of mathematics required for AI and graphic rendering are very much the same - parallel processing of large floating point matrices.

You need a lot of them, and they gobble up a lot of electricity and generate a lot of heat.

Crypto used to rely on on GPUs, but used the parallel processing capability in a different way. Crypto migrated from GPUs to specialized ASICs (application specific integrated circuits). However, these are just as energy hungry and also have to be organized into dense computing arrays.

GPUs are good for both AI and graphics, but AI specific ASICs will probably be developed. AI ASICs have the potential to decrease the energy consumption of AI focused data centers.

[Figarosmom]

34. All I need to know is how China bought land here to build them

In stead of building them in their own country at first. ( Foxcon). And now they have laws preventing them from being built near populations. They are all being built in remote locations.
From Wikipedia
Under their "Eastern Data, Western Computing" initiative, they are building the bulk of their massive AI data centers in remote, sparsely populated regions.This strategy prevents localized power grid strain and conserves resources near major cities.

[pat_k]

35. And I guess it was the Chinese that got Social Circle GA to stand up

[reACTIONary]

36. They uploaded...

"They apparently even uploaded a file to the chatbot describing .... how to establish fake social media accounts without getting detected."

Talk about an opsec failure!

[GenThePerservering]

39. The equivalent of 'Soros-funded professional protestors' nt

[eppur_se_muova]

41. Yeah, right. My first -- and last -- reaction. Blame the Evil Red Chinese !! nt