Contributor: Investigate AI campaigns flooding social media with fake comments
California built its culture of open government — including citizen boards that set rules for jobs like auto repair and security guard licensing — precisely to protect well-funded corporate interests. Lobbyists and special interests are always plotting to defeat democracy. They are now able to do more damage by using artificial intelligence to simulate false baseline resistance to clean air measurements, and secretly use real people’s data to deceive regulators.
Last June, the South Coast Air Quality Management District received more than 20,000 comments opposing two clean air laws that would have prevented 2,500 premature deaths and 10,000 new cases of asthma. A February an investigation by the Los Angeles Times he revealed that those comments were posted through CiviClick, an AI-based commenting platform based in Washington, hosted by a local political consultant with ties to the natural gas industry. When the regional cybersecurity team contacted a small sample of commenters to verify their identities, the majority of respondents said they did not post their comments under their names.
Still, a bunch of fake comments seem to work. The rules, fiercely opposed by the natural gas industry, already watered down by the county and almost toothless, were ultimately rejected by the board — apparently overwhelmed by a flood of false opposition to even the slightest attempt to limit pollution from gas-burning utilities.
This Southern California campaign was not an isolated incident. The latest an investigation by the San Francisco Chronicle he also revealed that i industry front group used Speak 4platform that touts its use of AI, to deliver a slew of repetitive comments from the fossil fuel industry in an effort to weaken and delay clean air regulations in the Bay Area. The scheme was exposed when 10 citizens whose identities were used in these emails said they did not send them, calling the messages “fake.”
In both cases, organizations sent emails and comments to administrators using people’s real identities without their knowledge or consent. This playbook has been adopted in other states: CiviClick was used by fossil fuel companies to support a gas pipeline expansion project North Carolina last year. While elected officials contacted several respondents to confirm the messages, some districts said they had no knowledge of emails sent under their names.
The campaign by opposition groups for the South’s clean air laws was driven by one of the state’s most powerful lobbying companies. Its client list includes Sempra, the parent company of SoCalGas, which has opposed clean air standards, which would have boosted sales of non-polluting heat pumps and threatened the utility’s business.
An industry front group is using AI to undermine clean air laws in the Bay Area, Common Sense Coalitionand has ties to fossil fuel companies. The Common Sense Coalition is a project of the Bay Area Council, a local business group that includes members such as the Western States Petroleum Assn., Chevron, Martinez Refining Co. and Phillips 66.
The question of whether fossil fuel interests are funding astroturf AI campaigns to defeat clean air laws should be answered by a full investigation, which should also determine whether the campaigns are committing fraud or stealing information.
Californians deserve to know what’s going on – how AI was used, where lobbyists got names and addresses they attached to robo-messages and paid for fraud campaigns. The most important is the use of real citizens’ identities – without their knowledge or consent – to oppose life-saving clean air standards.
Senior law enforcement officials should investigate – including Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, Los Angeles Dist. He said. Nathan Hochman and San Francisco Dist. He said. Brooke Jenkins. If the law on using a person’s name in a scheme to thwart the action of a government agency is not clear enough to support a prosecution, the law needs to be strengthened – and there is law, Swith us BI’m sick 1159, intending to do so.
If this seems like a niche issue, I can assure you that it is not. I have spent 17 years leading the California Air Utilities Board, and I am deeply disturbed by the potential integration of public input processes through the use of automated tools. Gathering public opinion is essential to the legitimacy of regulatory agencies.
We often hear from individuals or business organizations concerned about the cost or burden of proposed regulations, and we worked hard to understand and coordinate our regulations to make them as simple and cost-effective as possible, while still making progress in reducing air and weather damage for a variety of equipment and operations.
The destruction of public opinion by deception is not just a matter of nature; it is a democratic issue – and it needs urgent attention and accountability. California must draw the line to protect our democratic institutions.
Mary Nichols was chair of the California Air Resources Board, where she sat on the attorney’s chair. He is a distinguished advisor to the Emmett Institute on Climate and Sustainability at UCLA Law School.
