Sen Tom Cotton urges DOJ to probe Chinese bid to 'kneecap' American AI

By Fox News · Fox News

Sen. Tom Cotton urged the Justice Department to investigate a covert campaign linked to China designed to "kneecap" America's rapidly expanding artificial intelligence infrastructure in a letter obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital. In the letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Arkansas Republican calls for federal investigators to examine whether foreign actors are attempting to shape U.S. public opinion and policy against data centers and AI development as Washington and Beijing compete for dominance in artificial intelligence. "Recent reports show that Communist China is attempting to influence our policy and public opinion on data centers. The reason is obvious: they want to kneecap our processing power to win the AI race," Cotton told Fox News Digital. "Americans should decide their own future free of communist propaganda. I'm encouraging the Department of Justice to investigate," Cotton said. REPORT: CHINESE PROPAGANDA, SINGHAM NETWORK, FOREIGN DARK MONEY LINKED TO CAMPAIGNS AGAINST DATA CENTERS Cotton's request follows the release of a report last week from the Bitcoin Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., alleging that Chinese state media, foreign-funded advocacy groups and a network of organizations funded by American tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham have spent years building opposition to U.S. data center construction and AI infrastructure projects. Singham, an avowed Marxist and the founder of a Chicago-based company, Thoughtworks, that he sold in 2017, now lives in Shanghai, and has become a growing focus of congressional scrutiny and federal investigations . In March, as members of the Singham network were journeying to Havana to support the Communist Party of Cuba, Earlier this year, Fox News Digital published a five-part series documenting how Singham has funneled $278 million into a series of nonprofits, including groups at the heart of the protests against AI, data centers and technology firms in the U.S. As Fox…