American technology trade associations have said that social media bots linked to China and countries within China's “sphere of influence” are allegedly behind the expansion of protests against the construction of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in the United States. As Axios writes, citing representatives of the sphere, the US Congress has already been notified of the alleged problem, and the House of Representatives separately stated that “Chinese money” may also be involved in the situation.
In the United States, restrictions and moratoriums on the construction of data centers for AI—specialized computing complexes for training and remote use of neural networks—have recently become more active at the local level.
As RTVI.US wrote, in June the Californian city of Monterey Park was the first in the country to vote in a referendum for a complete ban on such projects. The decision of legislators and voters was preceded by mass protests.
Recently, New York state legislators decided to ban for a year the issuance of permits for the construction of data centers with electricity consumption of more than 20 megawatts.
The main complaint of opponents of data centers for AI is their significant consumption of energy and fresh water to cool equipment. As opponents emphasize, this could have a negative impact on the environment and utility prices in nearby areas.
A Gallup poll in May found that at least 71% of Americans would not want a data center in their area.
Supporters of the development of the AI field are confident that “foreign interference,” primarily Chinese, played a role in the spread of this kind of sentiment in the United States. As Axios notes, the greatest concern among industry representatives was caused by publications on social networks about Stratos, a center under construction on 40,000 acres in Utah.
The specific origin of the posts was allegedly traced to the countries of South Asia and North Africa. It is foreign influencers who claim on X (formerly Twitter) that the projects will leave Americans without running water in their toilets and without money in their retirement accounts that are getting the most views, union officials say.
“Americans are worried about AI in one way or another, which makes them especially susceptible to misinformation about data centers,” said Steve DelBianco, head of the trade association NetChoice.
His colleague from the non-profit organization (NPO) Coalition for Affordability & Prosperity added that he has already asked the heads of the intelligence committees in both houses of the US Congress to pay attention to the alleged problem.
The head of the Ways and Means (Budget) Committee in the House of Representatives, Congressman Jason Smith from Missouri, in turn, announced the launch of his own investigation into possible Chinese sponsorship of American NGOs that oppose the construction of data centers in the United States.
“We have tracked Chinese money that goes to American NGOs that are organizing protests against data centers. This is due to the fact that China wants to take a dominant position in the computing field,” Smith told Notus.
The Republican added that he has asked US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to strip these organizations of their tax exemption. The ministry told Notus that non-profit status should not become “a cover for foreign influence,” but did not specify whether measures were being prepared against any organizations.
