OpenAI bans China-linked ChatGPT influence accounts
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- OpenAI banned China-linked accounts that used ChatGPT to draft social media influence campaigns targeting U.S. debates over tariffs and AI data centers, announcing the action on Wednesday.
- The company uncovered two operations: "Data Center Bandwagon," which generated comments and comics claiming AI data centers were driving up electricity prices for American families, and "Tech and Tariffs," which used ChatGPT to create content and political cartoons criticizing Trump's tariffs and the U.S. push for global tech dominance.
- In the data center campaign, users OpenAI believes were linked to a Chinese government contractor asked ChatGPT to create comic strips about power grid capacity; the images were later posted to X via likely inauthentic accounts alongside links to legitimate news stories about data center power demand.
- OpenAI said the campaigns failed to gain much online traction, but called this the first time it has seen a China-linked operation using its models to meddle in the AI data center debate specifically.
- One political cartoon depicts Trump wearing American flag pants that read "America First" while holding a mallet labeled "Tech Dominance" and swinging it into a wall that reads "Global Future," according to OpenAI.
- Ben Nimmo, OpenAI's principal investigator on its intelligence and investigations team, told reporters: "This was not a case of an influence operation creating a debate. The debate existed already. This was an influence operation from China trying to interfere in it."
- The campaigns targeted pre-existing flashpoints: a Harvard/MIT poll found 32% of Americans oppose data centers in their area while 40% support them, and a March Harris poll found 7 in 10 Americans said Trump's tariffs have caused them to pay higher prices.
Why it matters: OpenAI says the campaigns flopped, but the company flagged this as its first China-linked operation targeting the data center debate — meaning U.S. tech and trade policy fights are now confirmed venues for AI-scaled foreign influence. The content specifically exploited pre-existing divisions (32% of Americans already oppose local data centers; 70% say tariffs raised prices), so the bar for foreign actors to inject themselves into domestic policy debates just got lower.
