Jun 11, 2026
OpenAI says it has disabled several accounts, likely based in China, that used its ChatGPT chatbot to launch a campaign meant to build negative sentiment among Americans regarding data centers.
The report separates the now-banned accounts into two clusters. One, OpenAI wrote, generated social media comments and images claiming that AI data center buildouts were increasing electricity prices for average American families. The other used generated comments and images to criticize U.S. tariffs as attempts to dominate technological competition.
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The efforts by these accounts, says OpenAI, show operators from China were testing narratives against AI infrastructure. The efforts, however, do not seem to have borne much fruit.
“The operation sought to exploit and amplify existing public concerns about energy prices and local impacts of data center development, but we found no evidence of meaningful breakout beyond its own activity,” wrote OpenAI.
The operation
OpenAI does not allow China to access its ChatGPT models, and the accounts that were banned used VPNs to access the platform. The company says the agents posed as Americans while using prompts in “simplified Chinese,” often requesting Chinese- and English-language outputs.
The cluster that focused on painting data centers as facilities that will increase electricity prices would have ChatGPT create comic strips, which the operators would post on social media using inauthentic accounts. The chatbot was also used to edit images and add text to generic images that supported their narrative.
OpenAI said it believes the group that gained access to its tool was a social media team from a Chinese company doing work on the government’s behalf. The group was hardly subtle, though, going so far as to upload a file to ChatGPT describing its objectives and strategies about how to sway public opinion and subtly establish fake social media accounts.
The group also reportedly used ChatGPT to harass Chinese dissidents.
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Stirring a well-stirred pot
The campaigns focused on issues that were already front of mind for many people, which might be why they failed to find much traction with Americans.
Sentiment against tariffs has been negative since they were first introduced. Meanwhile, the higher costs of electricity in cities that host or are near to data centers is one that has been widely reported and protested, even without the egging on of suspected China-aligned operators.
Bloomberg reports that in some areas electricity now costs 267% more than it did five years ago because demand for energy from data centers exceeds supply.
So, why did the groups target these well-trod issues? Perhaps to keep the debate front and center, though it was hardly going to go away. Why use ChatGPT to do that? That’s something even OpenAI doesn’t understand.
“It is ironic that the two operations used American AI, rather than Chinese models, to generate their content about American AI,” the company wrote. “We are not in a position to determine what drove this choice.”
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Chris Morris is a veteran journalist with more than 35 years of experience at many of the internet's biggest news outlets. In addition to his activities as a writer, reporter and editor, Chris is also a frequent panel moderator and speaker at major conferences, including CES and South by Southwest.
