What happened
Build American AI, a dark-money group affiliated with the Leading the Future super PAC, is funding social media influencers to promote US artificial intelligence and portray Chinese AI as a national security risk. The super PAC, backed by tech figures including OpenAI president Greg Brockman and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, has $51 million available to spend, paying influencers up to $5,000 per TikTok video to disseminate messages about China's AI posing threats to data and jobs. This campaign, managed by influencer marketing agency SM4, aims to subtly shift public debate by framing China's AI advancement as a serious risk to American safety and well-being.
Why it matters
Undisclosed political messaging, disseminated through social media influencers, distorts the information landscape for decision-makers evaluating global AI competition. Procurement teams and investors face obscured market signals when narratives about national security and technological leadership are funded by undisclosed corporate interests. This follows the AI industry's earlier launch of a super PAC to back pro-tech candidates, indicating a pattern of direct political engagement. Teams must scrutinise social media information sources, verifying claims against primary data to assess geopolitical tech narratives accurately.
