200,000 Chinese bots are hiding on X — built to control what you think

The “global public square” known as X.com, and Twitter before that, has had a bot problem dating back at least a decade, maybe more. So perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that X’s Global Government Affairs team just uncovered a huge Chinese bot network packed with approximately 200,000 accounts, and they’re trying to influence the things you think and believe.

The official Global Government Affairs team on X sent out a post in late August detailing a shocking revelation. According to the team, “We identified a bot farm of approximately 200,000 accounts. Within this farm, we found 200 accounts posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy.”

Whoever leads the AI race can control the world, so it has to be us.

Artificial intelligence has been a hot topic in the United States, partially because America is home to the leading frontier models that serve as the basis for China’s mainstream AI platforms, and partially because there are still big debates happening over government regulations, model review processes, and data centers taking up local land and resources.

If X’s Global Government Affairs team is correct, though, some of these debates may not be completely legitimate. X found that at least 200 of the bot accounts have engaged users online to turn Americans against AI, but why?

2 things can be true at once

Thinking critically, there are two sides to this story that explain what’s happening here.

For the bots, the Chinese government has a clear stake in convincing Americans to reject AI. If enough of the American people turn against LLMs and data centers, our leading AI developers will be forced to slow down and possibly even bring the breakneck pace of model development to a standstill. In doing so, competing Chinese developers will have a chance to continue to innovate, ultimately leapfrogging the United States as the new dominant figure in the AI race.

RELATED: China’s new AI master plan is a glimpse at total technological control

bernie_photo/Getty Images

Our latest models, like Anthropic’s Mythos, have already proven that they can detect digital vulnerabilities better than humans and break existing cybersecurity systems that have protected our data for ages. So far, this power has been nestled firmly in the hands of the good guys. Now imagine if this technology was wielded by a superpower that has long wanted to steal American intelligence, influence our political system, and reign as the premier world power. Even worse, we wouldn’t have any means to battle more sophisticated AI if our models were frozen in the past.

Whoever leads the AI race can control the world, so it has to be us.

Secret agendas

From X’s perspective, the company also has a clear reason to shine a light on the Chinese bot farm. X is linked to SpaceXAI, the company behind Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok. Unlike the Chinese, who could benefit from convincing the American people that AI should be stopped, X has a lot to gain by doing the opposite. More data centers mean more computing power and faster development that will improve Grok’s capabilities and secure its position as a leading AI platform.

In retrospect, only a scant 0.1% of the discovered Chinese bot accounts were caught promoting anti-AI messages. That’s hardly worth mentioning, yet X’s Global Government Affairs team specifically highlighted AI as the main talking point in the post. What would be more interesting is what the other 99.9% of the bots had to say, especially since China recently interfered with U.S. elections. Unfortunately, we may never know.

We reached out to X for comment, but we did not receive a response before the deadline. We’ll add an update if anything changes.

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