Multimillion-dollar campaign pays influencers to portray Chinese AI as a threat to the US
Artificial intelligence has become a battleground, and not just in research labs or the halls of Congress.
A multimillion-dollar campaign is paying influencers to shape what the public thinks about the tech race between the US and China, and the most surprising thing about it all isn’t the money involved — it’s how it’s being done: without most people realizing who’s behind the messages they consume daily on social media.
The story came to light when WIRED magazine revealed that the author of the original report was himself approached by a marketing agency to participate in the campaign. From there, other content creators confirmed they had received similar pitches, which made it possible to reconstruct the entire operation in detail.
The video that raised the alarm
It all starts with a video posted on Instagram on April 1 by lifestyle influencer Melissa Strahle, who has 1.4 million followers. Standing in front of an American flag, with soft instrumental music in the background, she talks about how AI lets her focus on what really matters and argues for the need to invest in artificial intelligence built in the US to ensure America leads the way in innovation and job creation.
The post was labeled as advertising, but who paid for the message was never disclosed to the public. Strahle did not respond to requests for comment from WIRED.
Behind the content is Build American AI, a dark money group connected to the super PAC Leading the Future, which has already amassed $140 million in total contributions and commitments, with $51 million available to spend promoting its pro-AI agenda as of April. News outlet NOTUS described the group as a massive political war chest for the AI industry. The super PAC has the backing of heavy hitters in the tech world, including names like Greg Brockman, president and co-founder of OpenAI, venture capitalist and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and AI company Perplexity.
And Strahle’s video? That was just the beginning of a much bigger operation. 👇
A two-phase campaign nobody saw coming
What looked like just another sponsored tech post is actually a coordinated operation with two distinct phases. The first phase focused on working with lifestyle influencers to promote the American artificial intelligence industry and US innovation in more general terms. The second phase, now underway, is all about China.
Marketing agencies are offering influencers fees like $5,000 per TikTok video to amplify Build American AI’s message about how China’s technological rise should be seen as a threat. The goal, according to an employee at SM4, the influencer marketing agency running the campaign on behalf of Build American AI, is to subtly shift public debate by framing China’s AI advancement as a serious risk to the security and well-being of Americans.
The SM4 employee summed up the directive plainly: they want influencers to mention China and America and why beating China is so important.
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Pre-written talking points for influencers
Build American AI provided content creators with sample messages to use in their videos. One example included lines like: I just found out that China is working really hard to beat the US in AI, and if they pull it off, it could mean China will have access to my personal data and my kids’ data and will steal jobs that should be here in the US. In the AI innovation race, I’m on Team USA.
According to a briefing document provided by Build American AI to influencers, the organization is now looking to expand its reach beyond left-leaning female lifestyle content creators, shifting to also target political commentators, business and tech leaders, and male lifestyle influencers, all with a progressive leaning. The SM4 employee said his agency is in charge of recruiting left-leaning creators, while a partner agency handles right-leaning talent recruitment.
The instructions go beyond verbal content. The document directs creators to discuss the importance of American AI while doing other activities, like making breakfast for their kids — creating the feel of something spontaneous and natural rather than a scripted ad. 🍳
Influencers who jumped on board
A string of high-profile lifestyle influencers on TikTok and Instagram participated in the first phase of the campaign, according to a list of sample posts shared by the SM4 employee.
In early April, Megan Linke, a family and youth sports influencer, posted a video on Instagram explaining how AI helps her stay organized. In the video, she says AI is changing everything and that it’s important to keep building this technology in the US. Around the same time, Uche Madson, another Virginia-based motherhood influencer, posted a video for her 412,000 Instagram followers saying she believes it’s important to invest in American AI so the US leads in innovation and job creation.
Both labeled their posts as ads, but neither revealed who the ad was for or that it was part of a campaign funded by Build American AI. Neither responded to requests for comment from WIRED.
The ecologist who turned down the offer
Not every influencer who was approached agreed to participate. Josh Murphy, an ecologist with over 130,000 Instagram followers, says he didn’t respond to SM4’s offer. He explains he’s not necessarily against AI, but combining generic praise of the technology with an aggressive anti-China message felt off to him.
Murphy went further in his criticism: AI can absolutely be used for the good of humanity, but this unregulated industry we have now, where it’s just tech guys chasing profit at the expense of everything else, just isn’t what it should be. 🤔
What’s at stake in the US-China debate
To understand why a campaign like this exists, you need to understand the context of the tech race happening right now. The competition between the US and China for dominance in artificial intelligence is real, well-documented, and impacts decisions by governments, companies, and investors around the world.
China has invested heavily in AI over the past several years, with ambitious government programs and companies like Baidu, Alibaba, and Huawei developing their own models and infrastructure. On the American side, companies like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Meta lead the development of language models and generative AI tools that dominate the global market. But that lead isn’t guaranteed forever, and it’s exactly that insecurity the Build American AI campaign exploits.
The rhetoric provided to influencers echoes long-standing arguments used by companies like OpenAI and Palantir, which point to China’s AI advances as a reason to boost American investment and resist stricter domestic regulations. Palantir CEO Alex Karp publicly stated in November that either the US will be the dominant player or China will be, and the rules will be very different depending on who wins. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, also said last year that he’s worried about China.
Tech executives also repeatedly argue that advancing American AI is essential to safeguarding democracy. Karp stated that when people worry about surveillance, there are real dangers there, but they will have far fewer rights if the US isn’t in the lead. OpenAI itself, in a blog post about national security, said it believes that democracies should continue to lead AI development, guided by values like freedom, fairness, and respect for human rights.
Leading the Future and the political moment
Leading the Future is trying to steer AI policy in the industry’s favor at a potentially pivotal moment. Artificial intelligence is shaping up to be a key issue in the 2026 midterm elections in the US, and industry advocacy groups are spending heavily to counter growing public concerns about issues like data centers, energy consumption, and potential job displacement.
To get a sense of the political climate, just this week Senator Bernie Sanders promoted the claim that AI could pose an existential threat to humanity. It’s in this atmosphere of rising tension that Build American AI is trying to counter negative narratives about the technology by working with influencers on the platforms where Americans increasingly get their news.
The numbers back up that strategy: 53% of American adults say they get at least some of their news from social media, and 38% of people between 18 and 29 report regularly consuming news from influencers, according to recent surveys by the Pew Research Center. 📊
What those involved had to say
Jesse Hunt, a spokesperson for Leading the Future, defended the campaign saying the United States has the opportunity to remain the global leader in AI innovation and that they are taking this message to the broadest possible audience through a comprehensive communications strategy. He accused doomsday dark money groups of spending millions spreading misinformation to the American public and pledged to keep highlighting AI’s economic benefits, fighting false narratives, and building the coalition needed to advance a national regulatory framework.
On the other hand, a spokesperson for OpenAI said the company has no corporate affiliation with Leading the Future or Build American AI and that it provided no funding or any other kind of support to them. A Palantir spokesperson said the company also did not contribute to either group. Perplexity declined to comment, and Andreessen Horowitz did not respond to a request for comment.
Transparency under fire on social media
Social media platforms have clear rules about advertising: paid content needs to be identified as such. But labeling a post as an ad and disclosing who is actually funding that message are two very different things. In the case of this campaign, the posts included sponsored content tags, but without revealing that the money came from a dark money group with direct ties to companies that have a real stake in the policies being promoted.
That gray area between what’s technically required and what would be ethically transparent is where the operation found fertile ground — and the question of whether platforms will act to close that gap remains wide open.
Influencers aren’t bound by journalistic ethics standards, and many don’t always disclose who’s funding their work. Well-funded super PACs and dark money groups have capitalized on this reality by funneling money to influencer marketing agencies that pay content creators to promote specific narratives. As a result, many people scrolling through their social feeds probably don’t realize they’re absorbing political messages from corporate interests.
What experts are warning
Jamie Cohen, an associate professor of media studies at Queens College at CUNY, doesn’t hold back in criticizing the campaign. According to him, consumers don’t know when the information they’re receiving is paid for. These influencers are accepting undisclosed money from the AI industry, promoting messages from specific companies, and the public has absolutely no idea. Cohen calls this extremely corrosive to democracy.
Cohen goes even further, pointing out a fundamental contradiction: the very same companies and groups that champion American AI as essential to protecting democracy are trying to distort the information ecosystem by spreading undisclosed political messages. A partnership label or ad hashtag isn’t enough to explain the agenda behind the information these influencers are presenting, he says. They’re not revealing the agenda underneath. This is, literally, propaganda.
Beyond influencers: a multiplatform operation
The influencer campaign is just one front in Build American AI’s effort to shape public discourse about the technology. The organization has also been running ads on X (formerly Twitter) with messages like AI leadership is national security, overlaid on an American flag, followed by the tagline: the US must lead or our adversaries will.
The scope of the operation shows this isn’t an isolated or one-off effort but a professional, multifaceted communications strategy designed to reach different audiences across different platforms, always with the same core message: American AI needs to be protected and encouraged, and China is the reason it’s urgent.
What this means for the future of the AI debate
This episode raises questions that go well beyond this specific campaign. How far does an influencer’s responsibility extend when it comes to investigating who’s behind the money they receive? And how far does a platform’s responsibility go in making sure its users truly know when they’re the target of an influence operation funded by groups with powerful economic and political interests?
The Federal Trade Commission has guidelines requiring paid endorsements to be disclosed clearly and conspicuously, but enforcing those rules in cases involving dark money and multiple intermediaries is extremely complex. When content isn’t strictly commercial but political or policy-oriented in nature, the rules get even murkier. It’s a landscape regulators worldwide are still trying to figure out, while campaigns like this one are already operating at a scale and speed that regulation simply can’t keep up with.
These are questions the content creator industry will need to answer sooner or later, especially as artificial intelligence and the rivalry between the US and China continue to dominate the most important debates of the coming years. 🌐
For now, what’s clear is that the battle over the AI narrative has already begun — and it’s playing out right in your timeline. The question is no longer whether campaigns like this exist, but how many others are running right now without anyone noticing. 👁️
