ChainThink report: According to an investigation by WIRED, the nonprofit Build American AI is systematically hiring social media influencers through the influencer marketing agency SM4 to disseminate narratives about "China's AI threat to the United States" on TikTok and Instagram.

Build American AI is a dark money affiliate (501(c)(4)) of the super PAC Leading the Future, which has received funding from OpenAI co-founder and CEO Greg Brockman, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and AI company Perplexity.

The campaign proceeds in two phases: Phase one involves recruiting lifestyle influencers to broadly promote the benefits of U.S. AI; multiple micro-influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers in parenting and family niches have participated in posting content, labeled as "ad" but without disclosing specific sponsors;

Phase two shifts focus to China-centric messaging, with SM4 offering $5,000 per TikTok video to creators, requiring them to naturally incorporate rhetoric such as "China steals U.S. data and jobs" within everyday content.

The operation is run along political lines, with plans to expand next from female lifestyle influencers to left-leaning political commentators, business and tech leaders, and male lifestyle influencers.

Leading the Future claims to have raised $140 million in donations and commitments, with $51 million in spendable funds available as of April.

OpenAI and Palantir both state they did not contribute financially. Jamie Cohen, associate professor of media studies at Queens College, said this operation is highly corrosive to democracy and constitutes strategic disinformation campaigning.