ChainThink reports that, according to an investigation by WIRED, the nonprofit organization Build American AI is systematically paying social media influencers through the influencer marketing agency SM4 to spread claims about a "Chinese AI threat to the U.S." on TikTok and Instagram.
Build American AI is a dark money organization (a 501(c)(4) that does not have to disclose its donors) affiliated with the super PAC Leading the Future, which is funded by OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and AI company Perplexity.
This initiative is being rolled out in two phases: In the first phase, lifestyle influencers are being recruited to broadly promote the benefits of AI in the U.S.; several parenting and family-focused bloggers with hundreds of thousands of followers have already posted, labeling the content as “advertising” but not disclosing the specific funders.
In phase two, shift to the China narrative: SM4 recruits creators at a rate of $5,000 per TikTok video, requiring them to naturally incorporate the messaging that "China is stealing U.S. data and jobs" into their daily content.
This operation is run along political lines, with plans to expand next to female lifestyle influencers, left-wing political commentators, business and tech leaders, and male lifestyle influencers.
Leading the Future claims to have received $140 million in donations and pledges, with $51 million available for use as of April.
OpenAI and Palantir both stated they did not invest. Jamie Cohen, Associate Professor of Media Studies at Queens College, said the operation is highly corrosive to democracy and constitutes propaganda.