this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2026
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Not The Onion

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[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 265 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Damn the evil CCCCP and their nefarious plot to *checks notes* tell the truth

[–] CapuccinoCoretto@lemmy.world 132 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The best propaganda is always the truth.

[–] RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip 47 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Genuinely why I hate anti-america/anti-capitalism propaganda based off lies. You don't need to lie when just telling the truth is damning. The lies just undermine everything when they're exposed, makes people question even the facts.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 10 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I've said this to people so many times, and they get all up in arms making strawman arguments about how I'm supposedly in favor of the thing they're against.

Like, no, if I thought you were flat out wrong and I had a differing opinion then I would tell you that. If I critique your argument on the grounds that it weakens itself by relying on misinformation, then chances are I probably agree on the bigger picture.

Some people, man...

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[–] DrakeAlbrecht@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Honestly, it's the last thing anyone would have predicted.

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[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 169 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

"Facts that happened to be true"

Please, shut the fuck up. Fucking shut the fuck up. I am at the end of my wits with this place.

[–] T156@lemmy.world 33 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

As opposed to, what, facts that aren't true? Those aren't facts at all.

[–] SkybreakerEngineer@lemmy.world 24 points 2 weeks ago

"Alternative facts"

[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 18 points 2 weeks ago

As opposed to just calling them facts because they are.

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[–] popekingjoe@lemmy.world 133 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

So... So they ran an information campaign?

[–] turtlesareneat@piefed.ca 76 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 39 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 12 points 2 weeks ago

Sigh... no, they don't actually.

[–] ironycanal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Anyone saying anything true about the american tech industry, or about anything at all, could be a secret asset in the employ of the Chinese government. They can't be trusted.

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[–] hark@lemmy.world 128 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

OpenAI has published a report

Into the trash it goes.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 24 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Free toilet paper 😃😃

[–] ButteredBread@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 weeks ago

Don't use that toilet paper, it's bad for you.

[–] gnate@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

From trash to trash, dust to dust

[–] SippyCup@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

Garbage in, garbage out

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 62 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

The real story is not about Chines influence on data center opinion.

Its openai reading conversations of their customers.

I mean we all already assumed they do before but this is so blatend, it smells like manufactured consent. You need to go from “suspect it happens” to “its normal to be like this”

[–] msage@programming.dev 6 points 2 weeks ago

If anyone, ever, at any point, expected OpenAI to never use anything in their chatlogs... I don't know what to say.

[–] Chais@sh.itjust.works 56 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Those evil Chinese propagandists! How dare they… *flips through notes* tell the truth!?

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[–] MoonRaven@feddit.nl 52 points 2 weeks ago

"facts that happen to be true" aka facts

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 45 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Their proof is a couple accounts in China asked the chatbot how to convince Americans to not want datacenters in their backyard...

If I asked a chatbot how to convince someone to not like getting punched in the dick, them not wanting to get punched in the dick doesn't mean there's a grand conspiracy and that's why Bob got mad after being punched in the dick.

Bob didn't need anyone to tell him not to like getting punched in the dick to have that response.

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[–] Iusedtobeanalien@lemmy.world 43 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Sam Altman seems to be a massive cunt

[–] mgrecca2026@lemmy.zip 22 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

He raped his younger sister

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[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 39 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

~~mis~~information campaign

[–] sommerset@thelemmy.club 10 points 2 weeks ago
[–] vegafjord@slrpnk.net 30 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Why the fuck make up lies for your propaganda when you dont have to.

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[–] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They asked ChatGPT about how to influence Americans views on AI, apparently.

Sure thing.

[–] Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

Imagine how fucking dumb our world has gotten that the discussion is, "china used our specific software to plot the destruction of our specific software using propaganda that accidentally turned out to be true" and not, "company uses VPN to blame China for their shitty practices."

[–] regdog@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

"Facts that happen to be true" what kind of orwellian speak is this?

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[–] BOplaid@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

PRC ain't good but this is absurd. Fuck ClosedAI

[–] mechoman444@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago

Wait. So china pointed out why data centers are bad and were right about it and people agreed?

That's a really weird ass "covert campaign".

[–] Solrac@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

"These dirty commies! Making everyone woke with their factually correct propaganda! They just want lil ol me to not have my american dream!"

[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

I don't think China cares about US that much ngl.

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[–] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

Another beacon of truth from the company of Sam Altman, known for his honesty and forthrightness

[–] zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 2 weeks ago

OpenAI still acts like there are absolutely none Chinese LLM. Sounds more like a fever dream. I wonder if they also did the exact checks on American user accounts and I am quite certain you will also see hundreds of Americans prompting the same thing.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

Ugh, people with those pesky facts, very inconvenient! /s

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago (13 children)

Yeah data center bad, but what kills me is the water use thing.

It really seems to rankle peoples bungle, and in both directions, that yes data-center water use is bad, but its just utterly dwarfed in comparison to forms sources of water use. And this is something I can speak to with a fair bit of expertise, in that I've worked extensively in developing water-use analyses for water districts, cities, counties, states, etc. Its just a scale issue and like with that recent Hank Green video about recycling, people truly don't understand how many people there are.

For example, take the MAWA equation (mean average water allowance). Typical indoor water allotment (and there is alot of data to back this up) is about 200 gallons (750 liters) per person per residence per day. That includes toilets, showers, cooking, washing clothing etc..

So lets take the recent number from that NYT article about its data centers water use. I think the number was 2.5 billion gallons?

73,000 gallons would be the average per-person-per-structure indoor only water allotment, which again, is pretty well established.

2.5 billion divided by 73k is about 35k, which is a bit of an over estimate but makes no matter.

All of Amazons datacenters combined "used", and I use "used" lightly here because its not like the water disappeared, but it used less water than a small American town. All of their datacenters combined.

Using duckduckgo to get numbers on this..

Just.. put it into context. Say 1lb of beef takes about 2k gallons of water to produce. The average American consumes 50lbs of beef per year. So an average town of say.. 35k people would go through 3.5 billion gallons of water in beef consumption alone, annually.

And the same equations are going to hold for practically everything else humans consume. Its just... its all a matter of scale. And I agree, datacenters are not good. But the water-use argument is weak when you consider just.. something basic and well established like beef consumption, or golf courses. 2.5 billion gallons is like, 120 golf courses worth of water. Its practically nothing.

[–] kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

120 golf courses is a fuckload of wasted water. That isn't as persuasive as you seem to think it is.

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[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 2 weeks ago

I can eat a beef.

I cannot eat a datacentre, no matter how much I try it doesn’t digest.

I agree about golf courses.

[–] barkingspiders@infosec.pub 7 points 2 weeks ago

completely agree, always thought the water use argument was weak, we are terrible at internalizing large numbers

there are way better arguments against datacenters, like the fact that onsite natural gas generators are now the norm for new datacenter builds where the grid can't supply the load needed, those things are fucking terrible for people and the environment

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[–] Alpha71@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

Fun Fact: the American Govt. has okay'ed giving China GPU's now that they get a cut of the profits. 🙄

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[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

at least it beats the russian propaganda that use lies that happen to be false

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[–] huppakee@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Uhm, you can run covert compaigns with true facts?

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yes, 99% of propaganda relies on contextualizing true facts so the audience accepts a favorable narrative and believes they're informed so they'll reject any counter-programming.

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[–] solidheron@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Open ai doesn't understand propaganda or this was their half hearted attempt to say "well the CCP wants you to think like that"

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[–] GhostFace@lemmy.today 7 points 2 weeks ago

I think this just shows that it's not stopping. They can say the most ridiculous statements in their defense and everyone just moves on.

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