The Wire by Acutus, an AI-generated site with articles attacking AI industry critics, appears to be funded by the OpenAI-backed super PAC Leading The Future
The reporters at this news site are AI bots. OpenAI's super PAC appears to be funding it.
@themidasproj
Context & Ripple Effects
Related coverage broadens the issue from one AI-run outlet to a wider Leading the Future influence network: paid influencers promoting US-based AI and opposing Chinese AI, followed by apparent links to sockpuppet accounts. The common thread is not product deployment but the use of political and media-adjacent channels around AI policy.
Because Leading the Future is described in the corpus as backed by OpenAI-linked executives, the reporting puts reputational pressure on a major AI company’s political ecosystem even where the reported funding and account links are framed as apparent rather than confirmed.
First-order effects
Acutus and Leading the Future face immediate scrutiny over funding disclosure, the provenance of purported reporting, and whether AI-generated bylines are being used to obscure advocacy.
OpenAI and executives associated with the PAC face a sharper reputational distinction between their companies’ commercial AI work and political activity carried out by aligned organizations.
Second-order effects
AI critics, journalists, platforms, and political-advertising watchdogs have reason to examine coordinated-looking AI content, influencer arrangements, and anonymous accounts more closely, raising the cost of undisclosed advocacy.
Other AI-policy groups may be pushed to make funding, sponsorship, and use of synthetic media more legible, particularly where their messaging targets regulators or public opinion.
Third-order effects
If similar cases recur, AI policy competition could increasingly hinge on provenance and disclosure rules for synthetic political communications, rather than only on arguments over model capability or safety.
The episode points to a more concentrated AI policy ecosystem in which well-funded industry-aligned networks can combine capital, influencers, and generative content; whether that produces formal regulation depends on evidence of coordination and enforcement priorities.
The trend: This is one data point in the growing fusion of frontier-AI capital, political advocacy, and scalable synthetic-media distribution.
Tbh I don't really understand why the industry is doing this. They should make convincing products, arguments, and commitments to change public opinion on AI. Don't think flooding the zone with AI slopaganda is going to help.
In light of all the god awful PAC behavior, I'm spending a lot of time these days thinking about what counted as bad conduct in the SB 1047 days... we really didn't know how good we had it, huh
I think pro-AI lobbyists trying follow the crypto playbook will prove to be a mistake. Only people who own crypto really care about it politically, so being super aggro scared off politicians from interfering. AI is going to be a way bigger deal to the average voter, so the
Alongside LTF taking (or dodging?) responsibility, Acutus Wire has begun deleting articles, not just about AI but also about Crypto and Graham Platner (see image). Public archive of the articles on the site are here: https://web.archive.org/... [image]
Looks like the OAI and a16z superpac just admitted they paid for the PR firm that is using astroturfed fake AI journalists to attack advocates? Now they want to pretend they had no idea? If you paid the contract, you are responsible for their actions.
nice confirmation by LTF they were in fact behind the AI outlet. Gotta hate those “third party vendors” always using your money to do stuff you don't know about.
The OpenAI PAC just confirmed that it indeed hired a PR firm that created a fake news site that ran AI-generated stories by fake reporters attacking AI safety advocates. And... they're pleading ignorance?
I love how this apparent denial pretty much confirms that the platform was indeed being used by the PR firm they work with (probably in their behalf too, as would be common to limit risk to the PAC)
This is pretty wild. I gotta say it's funny living in a future where a gumshoe reporter looks into a media org and discovers it's entirely run by robots.
A few weeks ago, I was forwarded an email from a journalist named “Michael Chen,” asking for comment on an AI bill in Tennessee. All signs suggest Michael Chen is not a real person, and the publication he writes for is an AI content mill linked to OpenAI's super PAC. [image]
The future of journalism? The obvious extrapolation is that every lobby group does something like this soon. The more scary/interesting prospect is that *everybody* - including private citizens - will do it.
Pangram mentioned 🥳 also this is bad and OAI's lobbying effort is very clearly misaligned, part of a long line of other actions, and I'm very tired about the cope around the leadership's trustworthiness (Sam, Brockman, etc.)
This is a hilarious story about a news commentary website funded by the pro-AI PAC that turned out to be a ~total AI-generated Potemkin Village, but the best part is that the website and CMS itself were clearly vibe-coded, with sloppily exposed back-end functionality.
On the @TheMidasProj revelations re @OpenAI's Leading the Future, I legit didn't expect to see LLM grooming as becoming an issue. But here we are. A side by side from the LTF findings and the best known other example from Russian intelligence services. [image]
We were not aware of this platform until we saw the article, and our organization does not use it. It appears that a third-party vendor used it without our knowledge, and their engagement with us has been terminated.
I am outraged. Last week, in the aftermath of the horrifying attack on Altman's residence, I was contacted by a “journalist”, Michael Chen, from a media called “The Wire by Acutus”. I replied to their questions and they published an article full of lies and disgusting [image]
Imagine push journalism ...except all the “reporters” at this news site are AI bots. Even more embarrassing is the vibe coded website exposed all their internal APIs to the public, so this ended up easy to confirm. Possibly funded by the OpenAI-Andreessen-a16z super PAC... 🤔
perhaps for a moment I can be more direct, look straight into the camera and say to the stewards of the Pro-AI Party Line: You have resorted to AI slop to make your arguments. That means your views on AI are literally slop. Your. Views. Are. Slop. Everyone notices this. Those
Very very weird. There seems to be a niche PR firm that's writing slanted hits on AI safety advocates, using fake reporters to contact them. Notably the firm also works for... the leader of the a16z/OpenAI SuperPAC?