PRC-Linked Accounts Reportedly Used ChatGPT in Covert Campaigns Targeting U.S. AI Policy Debates
ChatGPT was reportedly used by people in China to create fake news content targeting U.S. data center policy debates, according to OpenAI and threat intelligence analysts. State-backed actors from China, Russia and Iran have been identified conducting coordinated campaigns using synthetic media and inauthentic accounts to amplify opposition to data center development and influence American policy.
What happened
OpenAI said that a comic strip made to look as if it had been published by a Maryland news outlet was created with ChatGPT by people in China and circulated on X, blaming data centers for soaring electricity bills and showing a tycoon smoking a cigar and clutching bags of cash.
According to threat intelligence company Alethea, China, Russia and Iran have sought to use state media outlets, AI-generated content, and inauthentic social accounts to turn the controversy over data centers in the United States into 'a domestic fracture point,' with Alethea identifying scores of articles and posts on social media during 2026.
Reported impact
Foreign actors are described as exploiting rather than manufacturing American debates over the future of artificial intelligence, with the goal to 'deepen our divisions in order to dent our appeal and weaken us from within,' according to Jessica Brandt, a former official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Index analysis
The campaigns are characterized as part of a repeatable playbook: find a raw nerve, flood it with content that echoes what people are already saying, then let the fracture widen on its own, with Russia, China, and Iran having run this pattern before around natural disasters, elections, and protests.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.