Americans across both political parties have grown increasingly wary of technological change. Data centers, the infrastructure that powers artificial intelligence, have become one of the hottest issues in American politics.
Americans are right to wonder where this period of rapid innovation will lead us. What's truly worrying is that these sentiments are, to some extent, being engineered by our enemies
.The debates over data centers, AI development and other looming technological innovations have serious consequences. China is hoping we fall behind because we're scared of growth when we should be embracing it instead.
China, Russia are undermining US growth ambitions
China is our chief rival in the AI race, and it has been exploiting Americans' real fears about technological growth to advance
its own agenda.
In June, OpenAI found two clusters of Chinese-origin accounts using ChatGPT to generate social media posts, comments and images criticizing data centers and tariffs on China. In August, X uncovered a bot farm of more than 200,000 accounts, 200 of which were manipulating American debate over data center policy with memes, news articles and other critiques of data center construction.
China isn’t the only country trying to undermine American AI ambitions. RT, the Russian state media outlet that broadcasts outside Russia, has been elevating clips from Tucker Carlson and other Americans criticizing data centers for their power use and the fears they raise about AI.
Foreign nations have grown increasingly savvy at steering American opinion in recent years. Russia used social media ads and fake accounts to influence the 2016 election. Now China is borrowing that same playbook to hold America back in the AI race, not by undermining a candidate but by spreading policy positions meant to slow American growth in AI.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has asked the FBI and the White House to brief lawmakers on foreign influence campaigns targeting AI development and data center construction.
"Investigations by the Bitcoin Policy Institute and Power the Future have exposed new information regarding how foreign influence campaigns – many originating from China – have engaged in a coordinated effort to slow U.S. growth in AI development and the building of infrastructure supporting AI data centers," the letter states.
China wants Americans to keep resisting AI
Pew Research Center has found that 52% of Americans are "more concerned than excited" about artificial intelligence, while just 9% say the opposite.
A recent Gallup poll found that 7 in 10 Americans oppose the construction of data centers, the infrastructure that powers AI, in their own area.
Debates about the pace and scale of technological change are natural. They happen every time society faces something radically new. Americans worried about how the telephone, the internet and the automobile would reshape their lives, just as they worry about AI today.
The biggest innovations tend to unsettle people first and prove their worth later.
Lately, that unease has turned into policy. New York passed a moratorium on new data center construction, and 15 other states are considering similar bills.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, has floated a national moratorium, citing the need to review "the economic, environmental, and safety impacts of artificial intelligence." Thankfully, a federal measure seems unlikely to survive a Trump veto, let alone a Senate filibuster.
"China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement," President Donald Trump posted. "Actually, they can't believe it is happening!"
China has every reason to be thrilled with how these debates are unfolding, regardless of how much of the sentiment can be traced back to its own influence campaigns.
The AI race is no trivial matter. Whichever nation leads in artificial intelligence will hold the advantage, economically and militarily, for a generation.
A dominant China would tighten its grip over nations already dependent on its technology, and weaken America's ability to steer the world toward liberalism rather than authoritarianism.
Unlike a centrally planned system like China, the United States lets states decide for themselves whether they want these projects in their backyard. If one state passes a moratorium, wisely or not, others are free to welcome the investment instead, and many already are.
That's federalism's advantage: It makes it harder for our enemies to hold the whole country back.
Congress and the president should take this threat seriously. Trump has tried to make the case against the backlash, but calling its supporters "backwards and poor" was characteristically ham-fisted. He and his administration would do better to explain to Americans what they stand to gain from AI, not insult the ones who don't yet see it. Congress, meanwhile, should press ahead with reviewing every available tool to target the accounts spreading this propaganda.
Dace Potas, a law student, is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY. Follow him on X: @DacePotas
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: China is rooting for America's AI data center backlash | Opinion
