Dark Money Campaign Pays Activists to Promote China’s AI as a Threat

In an Instagram video posted on April 1, pro-life activist Melissa Strahle stood outside an American flag while soft music played. “AI allows me to focus on what’s most important,” he tells his 1.4 million followers. “We need to invest in American-made AI to ensure America leads the way in innovation and job creation.”

Strahle labeled the post as a commercial, but did not say what the agency paid. It turns out that the money came from Build American AI, a dark money group linked to Leading the Future, a. $100 million super PAC supported by, and sometimes directly supported by, tech figures associated with companies such as OpenAI and Palantir.

The video is part of a joint campaign funded by Build American AI, which is available on social media in two parts. The first focuses on working with veterans like Strahle, who did not respond to a request for comment, to promote smart US companies and American innovation. But the second and latest part of the campaign is about China.

Advertising agencies are setting up bids like $5,000 per TikTok video to spread Build American AI’s message about how the rise of China’s technology should be seen as a threat. The goal, according to an employee of SM4, the marketing agency running the campaign on behalf of Build American AI, is to subtly change the public debate by framing China’s AI development as a major threat to the security and well-being of Americans.

“They want to push to name China and America and why beating China is important,” says the official.

A sample message provided by Build American AI to developers includes lines like “I just learned that China is trying hard to beat the US in AI. If they do, it could mean that China will get my information from me and my children, and take jobs that should be here in the US. In the AI ​​technology race, I’m Team USA!!!”

WIRED first learned about the campaign when writing this story after being invited by SM4 to participate. The details were later confirmed by several other manufacturers who also received similar offers.

Josh Murphy, an environmentalist with more than 130,000 followers on Instagram who says he didn’t respond to SM4’s offer, explains that while he’s “not really against AI,” the combination of technology’s hype and aggressive anti-China messages resonated with him. “AI can be used to improve people,” says Murphy, “but the unregulated industry we have right now, with tech bros chasing greed and destroying everything else, is not what it should be.”

“The United States has the opportunity to be a world leader in AI innovation, and we’re taking that message to the masses through a social media platform,” Jesse Hunt, who represents Leading the Future, said of the campaign. “Dark money groups have spent billions spreading lies to the American people, and we will not allow this to continue. We will continue to highlight the economic value of AI, challenge the disinformation, and build the coalition needed to advance the political system using every tool at our disposal.”

Helpers a Leading the Future they include OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman, venture capitalist and Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and AI company Perplexity, according to the PAC. Leading the Future he says it has received $140 million in total donations and pledges, with $51 million to be used to push pro-AI starting in April. News site NOTUS he called the group “the biggest political war chest of the AI ​​industry.”