Axios reports:

Roughly 200 accounts from a suspected Chinese bot farm have quietly tried to influence Americans to oppose AI data centers on social media, X said Thursday night.

Why it matters: The U.S. and China are racing to build the world’s most advanced AI systems — and it appears Chinese propaganda has infiltrated American circles with the hope of slowing the U.S. down.

Driving the news: The X Safety team probed suspected Chinese accounts involved in influence operations and identified 200,000 accounts, including 200 accounts “posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy,” the team said in a tweet.

• The posts included content on how AI strains the electricity grid and increases utility prices and “cartoons that depicted data-center operators enriching themselves at the public’s expense.”
• It’s unclear what, if any, action X will take to suspend or delete accounts from the bot farm.
• X, owned by Elon Musk, whose billions rely on data centers to boost his AI enterprises, did not respond to Axios’ request for comment.

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