China didn’t make people hate data centers

Right-wing officials and Data center investors are increasingly claiming this Data center protests It is funded and influenced by the Chinese government. OpenAI It added to the discourse on Wednesday when it released a report describing a group of accounts originating in China that, the company said, were spreading anti-data center messages on social media.

However, experts who spoke to WIRED are skeptical of the funding claims. They also say it’s possible that any foreign intervention simply heightens existing tensions over data centers and artificial intelligence in the United States.

local Opposition to data centers In the United States it has risen significantly in recent months. A poll released last week from climate outlet Heatmap showed just that More than half of Americans support the moratorium Regarding data center development. sporadic Ballot A report published by UK-based policy research agency Public First in early June shows that support for data centers in the US was lowest among the 15 countries surveyed.

The idea that Beijing is funding data center opposition has gained traction in Washington, D.C., in recent weeks. On Wednesday, Sen. Tom Cotton I sent a message To Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche demanding an investigation into foreign influence “led by the Chinese Communist Party” to manipulate public opinion. He’s not the only one: Republican leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee Sent a separate message to the White House and FBI last week expressing concerns about foreign campaigns targeting data center development. Meanwhile, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Fox Business last month that places trying to build data centers are “being bombarded” with foreign propaganda.

Data center developers have also been quick to popularize these ideas. Canadian investor Kevin O’Leary, who is developing a massive and controversial data center in Utah, used a graph from a recent report by the Bitcoin Policy Institute, a cryptocurrency advocacy organization, in a video in May claiming that foreign influence was fueling opposition to his project.

Graphika, a social media analytics firm, has tracked opposition to data centers across several social media platforms, including Facebook, Bluesky, and TikTok over the past year.

Dina Sadiq, an analyst at Graphika, said in a statement that the company “has not yet seen evidence of organized or large-scale influence operations or campaigns that can be traced to a foreign actor,” with two notable exceptions. One is a “multi-platform network of accounts” that uses AI-generated avatars that comment on a wide range of social issues, and that “intermittently” mentions US tech companies. Another exception, Sadiq says, is the production of some Facebook pages Counter data center images generated using artificial intelligence. These pages often have administrators based in Bangladesh, and may only exist for “monetization purposes,” Sadiq says.

“Our ongoing research suggests that domestic actors in the U.S. are leading the anti-data center conversation online,” says Sadiq.

The OpenAI report includes anti-data center images created by ChatGPT that the company says were used as a campaign to “amplify existing public concerns about energy prices and the local impacts of data center development.” But the company notes that it “found no evidence of an actual breach” of anti-data center messages from the accounts it reported.

The Bitcoin Policy Institute report cited by O’Leary is one of the main sources of right-wing claims about Chinese influence. The report, which House Republicans also referenced in their letter, alleges that a tangle of nonprofit funding links grassroots anti-data center efforts to foreign funders, including the Chinese Communist Party.

The report also says Chinese state media is “openly campaigning against US AI data centers.” As evidence, she cites stories and videos about the anti-data center trend and rising energy costs, both topics reported by countless other US and international media outlets.