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A top official at the Department of War discussed how artificial intelligence is playing a role in war readiness strategy, and said foreign adversaries are carrying out “psyop” operations to fuel the anti-data center and anti-artificial intelligence movement across the U.S.
During an interview with Digital in the White House, Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michael warned that the movement to decrease production for artificial intelligence infrastructure is being pushed by America’s adversaries.
“It is natural from a propaganda standpoint that your adversary, who doesn’t want you to be developing super intelligence ahead of them, is going to try to psyop your population into believing that. And to some degree, it’s worked. And I think that’s why you see the president push back and say, ‘no, this is a good thing,’” he said.
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The Pentagon says AI use has surged under Secretary Pete Hegseth, growing from roughly 70,000 users to about 1.7 million across the Department of War workforce as officials deploy the technology for operations, warfighting and intelligence. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images; Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Data center production has been at the center of debate ahead of the midterm elections, with lawmakers taking near-partisan stances as to whether developments should continue. Michael referred to data centers as the “electricity that fuels the superintelligence revolution,” and explained that continued production of facilities are a crucial part of ensuring the U.S. maintains the lead in the artificial intelligence race.
Protests have popped up across the country against data centers and artificial intelligence advancements in general, with some lawmakers raising questions about the role that foreign influence plays in the demonstrations.
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“It’s the same reason we saw Middle Eastern countries paying for anti-fracking movements,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Digital in an interview last month. “Because if they can convince America, ‘Don’t develop your oil and gas, just buy it from us,’ well, that’s great for them and terrible for us.
“The same is true on data centers. If they can convince Americans, ‘You don’t want data centers here, you want to just rely on the Chinese for AI,’ that’s great for China, and it’s terrible for America.”
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Michael echoed some of Cruz’s concerns about foreign influence, though he did not specifically name China as the culprit.
Lawmakers have raised questions about hundreds of millions of dollars that American-born communist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham pumped into nonprofits and organizations that are now among the leading organizations fighting data center development throughout the country. Recipients of Singham’s largesse include the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the ANSWER Coalition, both self-described pro-China communist groups.
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Last month, activists from both groups carried signs in a Chapel Hill, N.C., protest, merging anti-Trump sentiments with support for communist Cuba and opposition to data centers and AI development, including the message, “SHUT IT DOWN!”
Demonstrators protest against AI and data centers as they march on the campus of the University of North Carolina toward the site of the G20 Innovation Ministerial in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on Sept. 2, 2026. They carry signs branded with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a pro-China communist group. (Matt Ramey/AFP via Getty Images)
Singham, a 72-year-old American who sold his tech company for $785 million in 2017 and now lives in Shanghai, is known to fund pro-Chinese Communist Party groups that operate in the U.S. He has funneled $278 million into the broad network of nonprofits since 2017, according to a Digital investigation.
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The Party for Socialism and Liberation Boston, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose national chapter regularly partners with and supports the Singham network, posted to social media in July openly opposing data centers, saying the control of AI and data centers is in the hands of billionaires.
“Workers are rising up across the country in a growing movement against the tech billionaires – from fights against data centers in hundreds of cities, to labor organizing at the world’s biggest tech corporations,” the post read.
Neville Roy Singham speaks at the Global South Academic Forum in Shanghai, China, in November 2025, in a conference blessed by the Chinese Communist Party. ((L) Global South Academic Forum, (R) Getty Images)
As for how the Department of War utilizes artificial intelligence, Michael told Digital that usage has skyrocketed since Secretary Pete Hegseth assumed the cabinet role, growing from roughly 70,000 users out of a 3.5 million-person workforce to approximately 1.7 million today.
He explained that the Department of War is deploying artificial intelligence across three main areas: enterprise operations, warfighting and intelligence.
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“We have incredible vignettes and stories about how people took 200 hours of work and combined it down to two hours,” he added. “They can see what we have as assets. They can see what the adversary has as assets – they can time things better, they write quicker, they can consolidate orders quicker.”
