Who Is Paying Influencers to Promote AI?
The Hidden Money Behind Pro-AI Influencer Posts
Who Is Paying Influencers to Promote AI?
Lifestyle influencers are being paid to publish polished videos promoting American artificial intelligence, warning about competition from China, and encouraging audiences to support continued AI development. Some of those posts are labeled as advertisements—but do not clearly identify the organization or interests funding the message.
In this episode of Network Issues, media scholar Jamie Cohen and marketing strategist Destinee Day examine what happens when influencer advertising begins to blur into political persuasion.
The conversation starts with a pro-AI video from a family and youth-sports influencer whose usual content has little connection to technology policy. It expands into a larger discussion about dark money, sponsorship disclosure, political advertising, audience trust, algorithmic targeting, and why people need more information than a small #ad label to understand who is trying to influence them.
Why Are Lifestyle Influencers Suddenly Promoting AI?
A lifestyle creator discussing artificial intelligence is not automatically suspicious.
Influencers regularly expand their subject matter, accept sponsorships, promote productivity products, and discuss issues outside their usual niche.
The concern arises when several details appear together:
The post is unusually polished.
The language resembles coordinated campaign messaging.
AI is unrelated to the influencer’s typical content.
The video emphasizes American technological dominance.
China is introduced as a threat.
The post includes an advertisement label but not a clearly identified sponsor.
Similar language appears across multiple influencer accounts.
Those signals may indicate that the post is part of a larger influence campaign rather than an independent opinion.
WIRED reported that Build American AI funded a coordinated social-media campaign involving lifestyle, family, business, technology, and political influencers. Early posts promoted American AI development, while a later phase encouraged creators to frame China’s technological progress as a threat to American jobs, privacy, and security.
What Is Build American AI?
Build American AI is a nonprofit organization involved in an influencer campaign promoting U.S. artificial-intelligence development.
According to WIRED, the organization is linked to Leading the Future, a pro-AI super PAC supported by technology and venture-capital figures connected to companies and firms including OpenAI, Palantir, and Andreessen Horowitz.
The campaign reportedly worked through influencer-marketing agencies that recruited creators and supplied suggested messaging.
Some creators were offered thousands of dollars per video. Campaign guidance encouraged influencers to incorporate pro-American AI messages into ordinary lifestyle content, including activities such as preparing breakfast for their children.
That integration is important.
The political or industrial message does not necessarily arrive in the visual language of a campaign commercial. It may appear inside familiar content from a parenting, sports, lifestyle, or business creator.
What Did the Influencer Posts Say?
The reported campaign messaging emphasized several connected ideas:
The United States must lead in artificial intelligence.
American AI will create jobs and innovation.
China is attempting to surpass the United States.
Chinese AI may threaten privacy or employment.
Supporting domestic AI development is patriotic.
Regulation could weaken the United States in a global technology race.
These claims transform technology policy into a national-competition narrative.
Instead of asking audiences to evaluate the benefits, harms, labor consequences, energy demands, privacy risks, or regulatory needs of AI, the messaging encourages a simpler choice: support American AI or allow China to win.
That framing can make criticism of AI companies appear unpatriotic or strategically dangerous.
Why Does the Influencer’s Usual Content Matter?
Context shapes trust.
A technology analyst discussing AI is speaking inside an expected subject area. Viewers may approach the content knowing that the creator has a professional interest, ideological position, or established expertise.
A parenting or youth-sports influencer enters the conversation differently.
Followers may trust the creator because of:
Shared family experiences
Lifestyle advice
Sports-parenting content
Product recommendations
Personal storytelling
Community identity
Perceived similarity
The creator’s authority is relational rather than technical.
That does not prevent the influencer from having a legitimate opinion about artificial intelligence. It does mean that paid political or industrial messaging can borrow trust built in an unrelated context.
The audience may experience the message as advice from someone “like me,” rather than as part of a coordinated public-affairs campaign.
What Does It Mean When Content “Breaks Containment”?
Jamie uses the idea of content breaking containment to describe what happens when a message escapes its expected audience and enters unrelated feeds.
An influencer’s soccer-parenting content may primarily reach families and sports communities. A sponsored AI video can be categorized by the platform as technology, entrepreneurship, productivity, business, or artificial-intelligence content.
The algorithm may then recommend it to people who have never encountered the creator’s normal work.
Those viewers lose important context.
They may not know:
What the influencer typically discusses
Whether the post is unusual for the account
Whether the creator has expertise in the subject
Whether similar sponsored posts appear elsewhere
What organization supplied the talking points
Whether the creator independently holds the stated position
The message arrives as a standalone unit optimized for distribution.
That makes contextual disclosure more important, not less.
Is an “Ad” Label Enough?
Not always.
An #ad or “paid partnership” label tells the audience that a material relationship exists. But it may not tell viewers who supplied the money, which organization designed the campaign, or whose policy interests the message advances.
The Federal Trade Commission’s Endorsement Guides require influencers to clearly disclose material connections with brands or advertisers. The disclosure should be difficult to miss and placed with the endorsement itself. The FTC warns that disclosures hidden in profile pages, placed after “more,” or buried among hashtags may be inadequate. (Federal Trade Commission)
A clear commercial disclosure might say:
Paid partnership with [company name]
A more informative advocacy disclosure might say:
Paid by [organization] as part of a campaign supporting U.S. AI development.
The second version gives the audience substantially more context.
A generic #ad may satisfy one layer of disclosure while leaving the central persuasion question unanswered: Who paid for the message?
What Is a Material Connection?
A material connection is a relationship that could affect how an audience evaluates an endorsement.
It may include:
Payment
Free products
Discounts
Employment
Family relationships
Business partnerships
Affiliate commissions
Gifts
Access or travel
Campaign funding
Other valuable benefits
The audience should receive enough information to understand that the recommendation or opinion may not be entirely independent.
A creator does not need to dislike a product or disagree with a policy for the connection to matter. They may sincerely support the message.
Disclosure remains necessary because payment can influence:
Why the topic was selected
How the message was framed
Which facts were included
Which criticisms were omitted
When the post appeared
How polished the production became
Whether the creator would have discussed the subject otherwise
Is This Advertising or Political Speech?
It can be both.
A post may promote an industry, influence public attitudes about regulation, create fear of a foreign competitor, and shape policy preferences without explicitly supporting or opposing a named political candidate.
That makes the content difficult to place inside a single regulatory category.
It may resemble:
Commercial advertising
Issue advocacy
Political persuasion
Public relations
Native advertising
Influencer sponsorship
Lobbying communications
National-security messaging
The classification matters because different rules may apply to commercial endorsements and federal election communications.
FTC guidance focuses on deceptive advertising and undisclosed material relationships. Federal Election Commission disclaimer requirements apply to certain communications paid for by political committees, including certain paid internet communications. (FEC.gov)
However, not every piece of policy advocacy is automatically a regulated federal campaign advertisement. Whether a specific post triggers legal requirements depends on who paid, what the message says, how it was distributed, and whether it falls within the relevant statutory definitions.
The larger ethical question remains even when the legal answer is uncertain.
What Is Dark Money?
Dark money generally describes political or policy-influence spending in which the original source of the funds is difficult or impossible for the public to identify.
Money may move through:
Nonprofit organizations
Advocacy groups
Super PACs
Donor networks
Trade associations
Consulting firms
Marketing agencies
Intermediary organizations
An influencer may know which agency issued the contract without knowing every donor or corporate interest behind the campaign.
The audience may know even less.
Dark money is not simply money spent on a message someone dislikes. The defining concern is a lack of transparency around the source and interests behind the spending.
What Is a Super PAC?
A super PAC is an independent-expenditure-only political committee.
It may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to influence federal elections, but it cannot legally coordinate certain spending with candidates or political parties.
Super PACs generally have reporting and disclaimer obligations. However, political and policy influence can also flow through affiliated nonprofits, advocacy organizations, vendors, and campaigns that do not fit neatly into a traditional candidate-advertising model.
In this case, WIRED reported that Build American AI is connected to the pro-AI super PAC Leading the Future, while the influencer campaign itself was funded and executed through Build American AI and marketing intermediaries. (WIRED)
It is more accurate to describe this as a network of affiliated advocacy and political organizations than to say that all political disclosure disappears automatically because a super PAC is involved.
Why Use Anti-China Messaging?
Foreign-competition framing creates urgency.
A complicated domestic policy debate can be simplified into a race:
America or China
Innovation or decline
Leadership or dependence
Security or vulnerability
Jobs here or jobs elsewhere
This framing can discourage questions about the behavior of American AI companies.
Concerns about copyright, labor displacement, surveillance, energy use, data centers, bias, misinformation, and market concentration may be reframed as obstacles that help a geopolitical rival.
The audience is no longer being asked whether an AI policy is good.
It is being asked whether the United States can afford not to adopt it.
That is a powerful persuasive shift.
Why Influencer Political Messaging Works
Influencers have something conventional advertisements often lack: an established relationship with the audience.
Followers may know the creator’s:
Family
Home
Daily routines
Humor
Preferences
Struggles
Children
Work habits
Personal history
This produces perceived intimacy.
When the influencer recommends a product or repeats a political idea, the message does not feel as distant as a television commercial or institutional press release.
Influencer persuasion works partly because it is embedded within ordinary life.
A message delivered while making breakfast, driving to soccer practice, organizing a calendar, or discussing parenting can feel less like lobbying—even when it was created through a paid campaign.
What Is Native Advertising?
Native advertising is paid promotional content designed to resemble the surrounding editorial or social content.
On an influencer account, native advertising may look like:
A personal story
A morning routine
A product demonstration
A parenting tip
A political opinion
A casual monologue
A response to a trending topic
A “things I learned” video
Native advertising is not inherently unethical.
It becomes deceptive when viewers cannot reasonably distinguish the sponsored message from independent content or understand the relationship behind it.
The more closely the advertisement resembles the creator’s ordinary voice, the more important a clear disclosure becomes.
Why Tagging the Influencer’s Own Podcast Is Confusing
In the episode, Destinee notes that the post appeared to label itself as an advertisement while tagging the influencer’s own podcast.
That could leave viewers with the impression that:
The post promotes the creator’s own brand.
The podcast sponsored the video.
The influencer is advertising herself.
No outside organization funded the message.
If an external campaign paid for the post, tagging only the creator’s own property does not help the audience identify the true sponsor.
Disclosure should clarify the material relationship rather than create another layer of ambiguity.
Why This Is an Influencer-Ethics Problem
Influencer marketing depends on trust.
Creators ask audiences to believe that their recommendations have value because the creator has exercised judgment.
Accepting money is not inherently unethical. Influencer sponsorship is a legitimate form of work.
The ethical problem emerges when a creator:
Hides the sponsor
Uses misleading disclosure
Promotes claims they have not evaluated
Presents supplied talking points as spontaneous opinion
Exploits trust from an unrelated niche
Fails to understand the campaign behind the content
Promotes political ideas as though they were product tips
Avoids questions about who benefits
Destinee frames the issue clearly: if a creator will promote any message for sufficient payment, what does their influence actually represent?
Why This Is a Media-Literacy Problem
Media literacy is not only the ability to identify misinformation.
It includes understanding:
Who created a message
Why it was created
Who paid for it
Who benefits from it
Which audience it targets
How the platform distributed it
Which emotions it activates
What information it leaves out
Whether it is advertising, opinion, advocacy, or reporting
A polished influencer video can be factually accurate while still being strategically incomplete.
The creator may truthfully explain one benefit of AI while omitting:
Environmental costs
Job displacement
Privacy concerns
Copyright disputes
Regulatory debates
Corporate concentration
The interests of the organization paying for the video
Media literacy asks audiences to examine the whole communication system, not only whether an individual sentence is technically true.
Why Evidence Matters
Awareness of covert persuasion should not become indiscriminate suspicion.
Not every unexpected opinion is sponsored. Not every influencer discussing AI is secretly paid. Not every coordinated message proves a conspiracy.
Destinee and Jamie emphasize the importance of evidence.
In this case, WIRED reported that the journalist was personally approached to participate in the campaign and reviewed briefing documents and information about creator recruitment, suggested messaging, and compensation. (WIRED)
Reliable analysis should distinguish between:
Verified campaign documents
Reported financial relationships
Observable disclosure practices
Reasonable inference
Speculation
Skepticism works best when it is attached to evidence.
What Should Influencers Disclose?
At minimum, a sponsored influencer post should make the material relationship clear and conspicuous.
For a campaign involving technology policy or political advocacy, stronger disclosure should identify:
That the content is paid
The organization paying for it
Any agency acting as an intermediary
The nature of the campaign
Whether talking points were supplied
Whether the creator retains editorial control
A useful disclosure might read:
Paid advertisement for Build American AI. This organization provided campaign guidance supporting U.S. AI development. Opinions are my own.
That level of disclosure gives viewers a meaningful basis for evaluating the message.
What Should Audiences Ask?
When unexpected political or technology content appears in a feed, consider asking:
Is this normal for the creator?
A sharp departure from their usual topic does not prove sponsorship, but it is a reason to investigate.
Is the post labeled as an advertisement?
Look on the video, in the caption, above the username, and after any “more” expansion.
Who is tagged?
Determine whether the tagged account is the actual sponsor, an agency, the creator’s own business, or merely a related brand.
Is the language unusually polished or repetitive?
Coordinated campaigns often provide approved concepts, phrases, or messaging frameworks.
Does the post create fear or urgency?
Messages framed around war, children, jobs, security, or foreign threats may be designed to bypass slower policy analysis.
Can the claim be verified elsewhere?
Search for independent reporting, source documents, and the funding organization.
Who benefits if I accept this framing?
Consider the company, political group, industry, campaign, or creator receiving value.
Does This Only Affect AI?
No.
The same influencer infrastructure can promote:
Political candidates
Energy policy
Cryptocurrency
Health products
Defense spending
Gambling
Financial services
Labor policy
Environmental positions
Foreign-policy narratives
Corporate regulation
The AI campaign is one example of a larger structural problem.
Influencer advertising systems can be used to move political and industrial messages through people whose audiences know them primarily for lifestyle content.
Once that infrastructure exists, it can be rented by many different interests.
How Algorithms Amplify Paid Persuasion
Platforms do more than display influencer posts to existing followers.
Recommendation systems can identify engagement patterns and place content into feeds based on:
Topic
Profession
Interests
Demographics
Previous viewing
Business ownership
Parenting content
Technology engagement
Political behavior
Similar audience profiles
Destinee describes receiving pro-AI content because she works in marketing and owns a marketing business.
The campaign does not need to find every potential viewer manually. The platform’s recommendation system performs part of the targeting.
That creates a partnership—intentional or not—between:
The funder
The agency
The influencer
The platform
The recommendation algorithm
The persuasive system is larger than any single post.
Can Influencer Campaigns Affect Democracy?
Yes, particularly when paid political or policy messaging is difficult to identify.
Democratic decision-making depends on people having enough information to evaluate who is asking for support and why.
Hidden sponsorship can distort that process by making organized campaigns appear to be spontaneous public opinion.
The harm is not that audiences may hear a pro-AI argument. People and organizations have a right to advocate for their preferred policies.
The concern is that the audience may not know:
That the message was paid for
Who funded it
Which industry interests are involved
Whether the creator independently chose the topic
Whether many similar posts are part of one campaign
Transparency does not decide which argument wins. It gives people the context needed to make their own judgment.
Key Takeaways
WIRED reported that Build American AI paid influencers to promote U.S. AI development and frame China’s progress as a threat.
Some participating posts were labeled as advertisements without clearly identifying the organization funding them.
A generic #ad label may reveal payment while failing to reveal whose interests are behind the message.
Influencers can carry political persuasion into audiences that trust them for unrelated lifestyle content.
Algorithmic recommendations allow sponsored messaging to move beyond an influencer’s normal followers.
FTC guidance requires clear disclosure of material connections in endorsements.
FEC rules may require disclaimers for certain paid internet communications by political committees, but not every issue-advocacy post falls into the same regulatory category.
Dark money describes influence spending whose original funding source is difficult for the public to identify.
Anti-China framing can transform a complicated domestic AI-policy debate into a simplified geopolitical race.
Audiences should verify the sponsor, funding structure, evidence, and intended outcome of unexpected advocacy content.
Questions Answered in This Episode
Why are random influencers suddenly promoting AI?
Some creators are independently interested in AI, while others may be participating in coordinated advertising or advocacy campaigns. WIRED documented one campaign in which Build American AI paid lifestyle and political influencers to promote U.S. AI development.
What was the Build American AI influencer campaign?
It was a coordinated campaign that paid creators to publish pro-American AI messaging. A later phase encouraged anti-China framing focused on jobs, privacy, security, and technological competition.
Who funds Build American AI?
WIRED reported that Build American AI is connected to Leading the Future, a pro-AI super PAC supported by technology and venture-capital figures connected to OpenAI, Palantir, and Andreessen Horowitz.
Is #ad enough disclosure?
It may disclose that payment exists, but it may still leave the sponsor unclear. Effective disclosure should be prominent and explain the material connection in language the audience can understand.
Do influencers have to say who paid them?
FTC endorsement guidance requires disclosure of material connections, but the exact wording and legal obligations depend on the arrangement. Political-communication rules may impose additional requirements in certain circumstances.
What is dark money?
Dark money is spending intended to influence politics or public policy when the original source of the funding is not readily disclosed to the public.
Is sponsored influencer content propaganda?
Not every sponsored post is propaganda. The term becomes more relevant when content is coordinated to advance a political or ideological objective while obscuring the funding source or campaign structure.
Why does anti-China messaging appear in AI campaigns?
It creates urgency by framing domestic AI development as a geopolitical competition. That can make regulation or criticism appear to threaten national security or economic leadership.
Why is unrelated influencer content effective?
Followers may trust lifestyle influencers because they identify with their family life, routines, or personality. Political messaging can borrow that trust even when the creator lacks subject-matter expertise.
How can viewers identify hidden sponsored persuasion?
Look for abrupt topic changes, vague ad labels, unclear tags, repeated campaign language, emotionally charged geopolitical framing, and reporting that identifies coordinated funding.
Episode Chapters
00:00 — Destinee shows Jamie a strange pro-AI influencer video
A soccer-parenting creator delivers an unusually polished message about American artificial intelligence.
01:16 — Jamie recognizes the influencer
The hosts consider whether the video represents a genuine topic change or a one-time paid campaign.
02:14 — The advertisement disclosure becomes confusing
The post says it is an ad but appears to tag the creator’s own podcast.
02:44 — Dark-money pro-AI campaigns
Jamie connects the video to WIRED’s reporting on coordinated influencer spending.
03:48 — Why AI content appears in unrelated feeds
Pro-AI messaging is moving beyond technology creators and into lifestyle audiences.
04:07 — Why marketers become algorithmic targets
Destinee explains how entrepreneurship and social-media interests fill her feed with unwanted AI content.
05:00 — Taylor Lorenz, WIRED, and the influencer economy
The conversation turns to reporting that exposed campaign documents and creator outreach.
06:30 — Why undisclosed messaging can damage democracy
Jamie explains why sponsorship transparency matters to informed public choice.
07:22 — Influencer posts that resemble product commercials
The pro-AI video adopts the polished language of mainstream technology advertising.
08:00 — Clear advertising vs. hidden persuasion
The hosts compare recognizable ChatGPT commercials with ambiguous influencer messaging.
10:30 — Why political framing changes the discussion
The content shifts from product benefits to national competition and technology policy.
14:12 — Super PACs, nonprofits, and anti-China messaging
Jamie examines how money can move through political and advocacy organizations.
16:08 — Why #ad may not provide enough context
A disclosure can acknowledge payment without revealing who designed or funded the campaign.
16:54 — Why the soccer-mom context matters
The creator’s normal content creates a specific form of audience trust.
17:21 — Content without audience context
Algorithmic feeds show the video to viewers who do not know the creator’s history.
18:46 — How pro-AI messaging breaks containment
A lifestyle post becomes technology-policy content and enters entirely new feeds.
19:30 — This is larger than OpenAI or Palantir
The same hidden-influence infrastructure can serve many companies, industries, and political interests.
20:30 — Influencer ethics and audience trust
Destinee asks what influence means when a creator will promote messages without clear transparency.
22:00 — What consumers should question
The hosts encourage evidence-based skepticism rather than reflexive conspiracy thinking.
24:00 — Transparency and better online choices
The episode concludes with a call for clearer disclosures and stronger media literacy.
About the Hosts
Jamie Cohen
Jamie Cohen is a media scholar, professor, writer, and expert on internet culture, political communication, artificial intelligence, online extremism, and media literacy.
Visit Jamie:jamesncohen.com
Destinee Day
Destinee Day is a marketing strategist and founder of Rudy & Company. Her work focuses on influencer marketing, communications, digital strategy, branding, advertising, and audience trust.
Book Destinee’s services:rudyandcompany.com
Sources and Further Reading
WIRED’s investigation into Build American AI’s influencer campaign
Federal Election Commission guidance on political-advertising disclaimers
WIRED’s previous reporting on dark-money funding for political influencers
Continue the Conversation
Should an influencer be required to identify the organization behind a sponsored political message—not simply label the post as an advertisement?
Follow Network Issues for more conversations about influencer marketing, artificial intelligence, social platforms, media literacy, political communication, and the systems shaping what appears in our feeds.
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Destinee Day (00:01.07) Hi, Jamie. I want to show you something. I don't know if you're seeing things like this in your feed or not. I know I definitely am, but it is worth a conversation. So quick context of this clip. This woman is a social media, like she's a soccer mom influencer, right? It looks like she also hosts a podcast about being a soccer mom. So just context, right? Jamie (00:02.007) Hey, how are you? Destinee Day (00:30.382) I want to show you this video in particular. Jamie (01:16.356) So let me ask you question, because I've never seen this video, but I do know this person. Is this Megan Link? Is that who that is? OK, so I'll tell you why I know her in a second. But let me ask you a question. Is this a one-off? Does Megan produce this type of content often? Or is this a choice to promote AI? Destinee Day (01:24.663) It is. Destinee Day (01:39.67) it appears to be a choice or it's not, it's a one-off. It's not. Jamie (01:43.51) It definitely looks like a one-off. Yeah. is it, is it, is there an ad or a sponsor in there? It looks like she's done a partnership, but. Destinee Day (01:54.734) Great question. So earlier today? I was a, there we go. There's the copy here on the side. It says that it is an ad here in the copy. And if you look at who's tagged, it's her podcast. Jamie (02:05.101) Mm-hmm. Jamie (02:14.498) Hmm, interesting. So it's a partnership with herself. Okay. That is, that's absolutely fascinating. Now I recognize the name, although I haven't seen the video because she's in an article about her potential working with a company that pushes pro AI content into people's feeds, even though traditionally her, her swim lane, so to speak, or maybe her soccer lane. Destinee Day (02:16.812) Weird. Jamie (02:44.736) isn't in that lane. So I'm unfortunately fairly familiar at this because I was quoted in an article by Taylor Lorenz about pro dark money pro AI campaigns and her name is mentioned in there. And like I said, I never saw that commercial, but it seems pretty blatant. She even has that tick tock voice that very calm. Here's here's how I make this tool work for me voice. And it is kind of kind of disheartening to be honest, because you never really could tell like why she decided to start promoting AI in the first place when it looks like her main focus on promotions is soccer or at least maybe even her podcast. So I think it's a high time for us to talk about this industry that's been basically working in the background with I guess many influencers, including I guess Megan Link about this. So I'd love to talk about this. This is I think very important. be honest. Destinee Day (03:44.19) So important. Jamie (03:48.11) Has this come across your feed? Have you seen pro AI content? Destinee Day (03:52.704) Yes, and I. Jamie (03:53.605) out of context pro AI, not like your basic AI aficionado, not your like, guys who are like deep in the AI sauce. These are just randos who are just like starting to talk about AI as a right? Destinee Day (04:07.51) I get a lot of it as a marketing person and I get a lot of it as a marketing person that owns a marketing business. get all... Yeah, and it... I go through and I have to reset my algorithm all the time now that you can do that on Instagram, but I go through and I have to unclick and it shows up in topics like entrepreneur or... Jamie (04:16.62) Yeah, you're the you're the target for this. Jamie (04:27.202) Yes. Destinee Day (04:36.93) What are other things I've unclicked? Like social, how to social media, things like that. And I once a week go through it and clear it out and I add it to things I don't wanna see, but it still pops up and creeps up in there. I don't like it. I don't like it at all. That did not feel right to me watching that video. Jamie (04:54.286) So. Jamie (05:00.724) No, that doesn't feel right. So I'd like to use my best TikTok voice to say, I'd like to show you an article about dark money campaigns paying influencers. There's a recent article by Taylor Lorenz that I'm quoted in. So I'm pretty proud to be quoted in this. I do appreciate Taylor's work. And this work came into Wired Magazine where Megan is mentioned. And again, this is partially on me where I never click the links to go look at it because as you mentioned, Sometimes when you click the link of some of these things, it alters your algorithm. Now, anybody who knows me knows that my algorithm is a big mess because I study both the far right and everybody else. like, basically it's an amalgam inside my Instagram page from cute animals to the horrors. And so it's one of these things that like, I really am not a fan of pro AI content. So I really don't want this seeping into my feed. So I was very glad to be a contributor to this, but not somebody who's like participating in the narrative. The reason this story appears and Taylor limits this later is because Taylor Lorenz as a journalist is also does a lot of influencer work. She does, she runs meme channels. She does a lot. She translates a lot of her content into visual content. And it means that she fits into a space where she's making a fair amount of money. If she can make money off of sponsorships, because that's where the influencer space is. And she also runs independently. She does a user mag.co and a podcast and everything. So she's like got these. projects out there. And this piece is very important because I've noticed this piece go fairly viral because a lot of people like you have noticed this pro AI content that has emerged directly into their feeds. And it seems to be two different directions. It's either pro AI or China is the threat. You know, it's like these types of messaging that's been put into here. And I have a very specific and interesting take on this, which is that I think that non-disclosure of any type of media messaging like this is fairly corrosive to democracy. And that's a crazy statement because democracy is big and these are just influencers. So how are these dark money campaigns scary to us? So I'd love to talk about this. So I'm gonna stop sharing this for the time being. Jamie (07:22.948) So here's my issue with this, is that that link that you just shared shows a woman who's basically explaining the benefits of AI. And it looks a lot like a generative AI commercial. Like, I don't know if you've seen like open AI's commercials for like ChatGPT. Have you seen them? Yeah. Destinee Day (07:37.1) Yeah. yeah. They're, they're good from a marketing lens, right? They're really good product marketing. Jamie (07:46.124) Yeah, no real talk. They are. Yes! Destinee Day (07:48.302) It lays out the prompt and it gives, it's amazing product marketing. Jamie (07:55.951) They're also best case scenario commercials. So it's like, you'll see them on like Hulu and they'll be like somebody who's like running and being like, how do I become a better runner? And so like they're asking chat GPT and chat GPT prompt response appears on screen. So you get like transparency and I'm putting that in air quotes because I'll go to my chat GPT, ask the same question. It'll give me a completely different answer. But I also think my chat GPT knows I hate it. So it, doesn't act the same. But those commercials are definitely and clearly marketing. That's an advertisement. It's a best case scenario. It encourages using the tool to go outside and like doing things. It doesn't focus so much on what the underlying messages of AI are, which are kind of like the more darker aspects of it, which is staying on it, relying on it, you know, basically not using it to go outside, but basically becoming a recursive subject. But I think a lot of the framing, the scarier parts of the framing in this and that that video is pretty tame. by comparison to the sum of the framing, because that video is like, here's how AI helps me. And it's like a one-off. But without knowing where we get the money from and how that comes, you don't know what companies are pushing that. And it looks to me like Taylor Lawrence has figured out that some of this comes from Build America AI, which is a influence campaign. Okay, and this influence campaign is very specifically aiming to talk about how China in particular is a threat to the United States AI, the Silicon Valley approach. Now we also know that this is a true thing because if you remember when TikTok disappeared for like, I don't know, it like 24 hours a couple of months ago, all the users decided to jump on Red Note and Red Note is China's TikTok or different social media. And everyone's like, oh wow, they're like people. And it became like a super big threat. two United States Silicon Valley's hegemony over the tech industry. And when you have like companies like OpenAI and Anthropic that are basically vying for spots at the top tier of like who's going to make the biggest government contract, this poor woman is like participating in like the potential of like government contract horrors, you know? So it makes me nervous. So here's my thoughts. OK, if consumers Jamie (10:17.016) whether they're AI consumers or not, or somebody who just follows the influencer, don't know where the money's coming from. I think you get the question, if you're smart, you start getting the question of who are they taking money from and who won't they take money from? Does that scare you? Does that worry you? Destinee Day (10:36.046) God, yes, yes. Jamie (10:40.502) Yeah, mean, it's pretty simple. Destinee Day (10:44.28) great that you know what I don't have a problem with influencers participating in campaigns right that's I make money that way I negotiate a lot of those deals. The issue that I have is an ethics issue it is not a capitalistic issue it is an ethics issue and that is if influencers are willing to take Jamie (11:05.998) Mm-hmm. Destinee Day (11:13.706) money from anybody, which they are. They stand for nothing. So what does their influence mean? Know what I mean? Jamie (11:23.364) yeah. Wow. Yep. Great. From a consumer standpoint of influencing, because we've talked about influencers a lot here, which is like, influencers, the role in society is to influence your purchasing, they are helping consumer decisions, they are helping that find it's kind like the original form of influencing was like unboxing and haul videos, where you kind of just get like a sense of like how things look on somebody else who's like supposed to be like, like you, that's what influencers they're like you. So at least you get somebody who's like, Destinee Day (11:43.148) Yeah. Jamie (11:52.375) showing that off. Influencers have evolved into more like basically the commercials of the internet or the sponsored content of the internet. My thing is I agree with you with ethics, 100%. But I also think in terms of like regulatory problems. This is where like a lot of the gray area comes in, which is in traditional media with commercials, you have the FTC, Federal Trade Commission and the FCC regulate, the FCC regulates the airline, the air, the broadband, the communication technologies that run through it. The FTC regulates how advertising is clear to a consumer. Because as you know, up until like 1990, cigarettes were like good for you, you know? it's like, it's difficult. You probably haven't seen certain alcohol ads in certain places. You probably haven't seen Joe Camel in a long time, like a cartoon character that used to like be out there. And that's because the Federal Trade Commission and the FCC work together to regulate how people receive harmful media. Like that's part of it. And when we were talking about the idea of the harmfulness here, it's more in the messaging. And when I think about like the regulatory issues here is that influencers are in a non-regulatory space. She did the work of putting paid partnership and ad, but because she connects it to herself, like no one really knows where the message is coming from. And in Taylor's article, it's really kind of interesting because there's a piece here. I'll bring that up on screen. There's a piece here that kind of lets you. kind of insinuate on why this is happening. And I think the thing to take away here, kind of funny the ad that's on the side here, the thing to take away from here is this. The rhetoric provided to influencers echoes longstanding talking points from companies like OpenAI and Palantir, which have pointed to China's AI advances as a reason to boost US AI investment and resist tighter domestic regulations on the technology. Quote, we are going to be the dominant player or China is going to be the dominant player and there will be very different rules depending on who wins. Palantir CEO Alex Karp said in between flopping around on a chair in front of somebody else. Wait, I added that part, I'm worried about China, Sam Altman says. The CEO of OpenAI told a group of reporters last year. It's very clear. Jamie (14:12.056) that the hegemony is being threatened. And so what they're doing to disguise that is they're basically focusing on the way that people who understand the topic and most people understand it through their distributive networks and they're getting it directly from their influencers. And as you can see here, but Cohen points out that attempting to warp the information ecosystem by spreading undisclosed political messaging is not exactly in line with upholding democratic ideals. And I know I'm going back to the bigger issue here because Democracy itself and an ad for AI don't seem like they should be conflated, but it is because when you're in a system that is democracy, which is inside of a capitalist system, you have to be sure that somebody out there should be looking out for your best consumer interests or your best interests because being a better consumer increases your agency, increases your ability to make just democratic decisions. I'm not even gonna get into the whole fact that like every technically, technically every single decision you make. is political regardless. I'm not even going to get into that. I'm just talking about the idea of clarity and the ability to make work and exist in our world is important for you to have some transparency as to where money is flowing. The loophole here is that they're using a Super PAC So AI companies, they pay an influencer directly, the influencer has to say, this is a partnership with that company. if OpenAI decides to pay Megan Link money, She has to say, partnership OpenAI, partnership slash hashtag ad, put it somewhere in there so that the FTC says, thank you for being transparent. But you get away with that and around that by making it political, by being anti-China in its messaging, it becomes a political issue. And now an AI company can pay a super PAC, a fund, an NGO, which then pays the influencer. it doesn't, because influencers can be any politics they want, it could just simply be opinion. Destinee Day (15:42.147) Yes. Jamie (16:08.332) And so she gets away with this by doing the loophole of hashtag ad. So she can always say, I disclosed it. I'm disclosed. You can see my messaging is biased, but it's biased in a way that we do not actually understand. And that's really one of the things I just want to make sure we, we as a citizens, as a consumer base, we have to understand that if we allow this, we will, like you said, eventually allow the door to be open to any number. of dark money campaigns that are just going to use the same tactical advantage over the public. Like that is something that makes me really, really nervous about our future in democracy. Destinee Day (16:44.43) Okay. Destinee Day (16:48.938) It should, it should. And... Destinee Day (16:54.966) I think it's important to note, normally here we would promote something along the lines of, know, the video was like a normal AI influencer ad until she brought up China. Huh, that's weird on a soccer mom post. Normally, if you were following this person for her soccer mom content, you would know this is out of place. Jamie (17:09.7) Weird. Destinee Day (17:21.752) What I think is inherently more dangerous to me and what I urge influencers to have a little bit more ethical wherewithal on is that that showed up on a feed where I don't follow her. for her soccer mom things. That shows up because it got lumped into the AI conversation. So it randomly shows up in my feed. I don't know all of the context behind her content. I'd have to go in and do research. And if you're just scrolling through, you know, a for you page or a reel situation, the context isn't always there. So I think the danger is inherent there, especially because the normal FTC things I have to follow when I do influencer ads. I have to take it a step further. I have to put ad on the video. I can't post the video unless it says sponsored or ad somewhere. And it has to be tagged with that company. And as we saw in her video, it's tagged back to her podcast. There is no clear discernment where that money is coming from. And like you said, that's very dangerous. It's very irresponsible. It's not great use of marketing. Please people, make better other choices. Jamie (18:46.582) Yeah. And this isn't just an open AI slash Palantir problem slash any AI thing. What you're talking about is its ability to break containment. Like her using the AI thing rather than her soccer mom puts it in other people's feeds. And if they don't have any clue, not only is she sponsoring herself, which we've always talked about, which is like the influencer is a brand. So she's funneling to her brand, but she's also funneling to an ideology, something that is very specifically Controversial, even though it shouldn't be controversial, but because the decisions OpenAI, Anthropic, and Palantir are making make them controversial, and we should be concerned about that. And this isn't just tied to justice too. Taylor Lorenz last year for Wired Magazine as well wrote a whole thing about dark money coming from political campaigns and reifying political messaging. That's no matter what, whether it's left or right or wherever, that's the idea of not knowing where the money comes from. definitely puts people in a situation where they are unaware of how to make proper decisions because an influencer isn't being clear on what stance we as consumers should be participating in. And we might just follow around blindly because that's the influencer model. So there are, there are things that I think people should take away from this. Like there are, there's very important approaches. And I talk about this with my students all the time. So I'm definitely going to credit them for the fact that I have these conversations consistently in class. But like I always ask about what is this, what makes this important for them to know? And they, I think they're important that they should make sure that it's important for them to know, or at least people to understand when things are suspicious, when things are like, well, in their terms, when things are sus. And that is because if you're not really tuned to the idea that something is like, something's up, you might take it as real. And I think another thing is like, you should understand that knowing that not everything real is very, very important. If you don't have a contrast of what is real and what is not, or what is promoted, what is an ad versus authentic messaging, you might just accept the way things are, wrote, without having any skepticism whatsoever. And if you don't have that skepticism built into you, then you won't have an ability to discern those types of messages. And it really puts you at a back foot when you're making any purchase. Jamie (21:06.308) I don't know how many people actually make the thought process of being like, why am I buying this? What made me buy this? What are these decisions that are in here? We're well past the age of like, the algorithm made me do it. Now we're at a point where consumer choice is built upon hundreds of different points. So when you're telling friends about this, like when you're watching these things, I think it's important for like any viewer who comes across a video that seems like something's up, something suspicious. is to like try to make that a conversation with friends. And like when you're trying to explain this story, because this story went fairly viral. So this Wired article like should be talked about, should be shared. I think you should aim to like surprise your friends about it. Like you should tell them something about the dark money aspects of the internet. Because I think it makes people more aware, not hyper aware, but makes people more aware that not everything you see online is authentic. Destinee Day (21:58.784) And I think even more so this, because I feel like that could get a little conspiratorial, but we actually have the receipts here. Taylor has the receipts and you can very clearly see the lack of disclosure on just this influencer's post. There are many others. Jamie (22:04.056) Sure. you're right. Yeah. Jamie (22:14.818) Yep. Great point. want to double down on your point here is that to avoid conspiracy evidence matters, you know, 100 % on that if yours receipts, there's evidence. Evidence helps make an argument for these things. So you are 100 % right because yeah, opening your mind the other direction. What's that idea? Open your mind too wide, your brain falls out, you know, you have to be pretty, you have to be pretty careful in terms of like how you contain reality and truth. But yes, In this case, Taylor was sent this contract from a company was probably set by accident. She's disclosed this on her Instagram on her videos that she was part of the campaign that tried to ask her to do pro AI content. And by doing it, she was able to get access to the contract that helps reveal this information, which means just by that, you're the assumption is that all the influencers doing this pro AI content are probably giving the same entry point. And they maybe did it for their money. Maybe they did it for their clout. Maybe they did it to break containment. Maybe it. They knew that the algorithm would push them into other people's feeds. Whatever it is, we should know how those things happen. Destinee Day (23:19.438) Couldn't agree more. So if people want to learn more, if people want to jump in and have a discussion about it, we are starting a discourse channel. So stay tuned for more information on that. In the meantime, you can follow network issues on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and visit Jamie's website for some more detailed and thorough information. How's that? Is that good? Jamie (23:49.487) That's great. Yeah. That's everything.