OpenAI says it banned a set of China-linked accounts that used ChatGPT to draft social media influence campaigns aimed at US debates over AI data centers and tariffs. One operation, dubbed “Data Center Bandwagon,” generated comments and political cartoons claiming data centers were driving up electricity prices for American families, while a second, “Tech and Tariffs,” produced cartoons attacking Trump's trade policies, with the content then pushed out through likely inauthentic accounts on X. OpenAI says the campaigns gained little traction and that the operatives were exploiting debates that already existed rather than creating them, but it flagged this as the first China-linked operation it has seen targeting the data center fight specifically.
