Late in 2023, the corporate world was abuzz with the utopian promise of AI — especially about the tech’s effects on the environment.
From today’s vantage point, some of the corporate claims floating around back then sound patently absurd: Google insisted that AI had the potential to “mitigate 5-10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions,” while Microsoft enthused that the new tech would “accelerate the discovery and development of sustainability solutions.” Even academics played along. Jim Bellingham of Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Assured Autonomy claimed that “AI-powered robots” and satellites would form part of a system helping to “reduce the carbon that is released into the atmosphere.”
So far, reality has demonstrated the exact opposite. Not only are electrical demands of data centers supercharging our carbon emissions, but the technology itself is now being used to actively resist climate regulations.
According to new reporting by the Los Angeles Times, an eco-friendly initiative to phase out the use of gas-powered appliances in Southern California was defeated thanks to a campaign weaponizing a suite of AI software. The regulation, proposed by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), would have gradually phased out household water heaters and furnaces powered with natural gas, as part of an effort to limit the emissions of smog-causing nitrogen oxide.
As the initiative proceeded through AQMD’s board in summer of 2025, the agency became inundated with tens of thousands of seemingly organic emails voicing opposition to the regulations. As the LA Times notes, the flood of angry public comments got a significant boost from CiviClick, an AI platform which bills itself as a “Disruptive Digital Advocacy Software.”
According to records requests, more than 20,000 public comments directed at AQMD’s initiative were drummed up via CiviClick.
While it isn’t clear where AI was deployed in the campaign, CiviClick boasts a number of solutions bundled as “Grassroots Advocacy Software.” These include auto-filled webforms, as well as video and photo messages to elected officials. Most crucially CiviClick advertises an “AI powered automatic message generator,” which comes with “auto-randomizing” messaging, “unlimited subject lines and message bodies,” and “smart targeting ability.”
In the face of such vast public opposition — or what appeared to be, at the time — the AQMD board voted 7-5 to reject the measure, which would have slowly raised the cost of gas-powered appliances through small surcharges.
The email campaign’s mastermind, Matt Klink, went so far as to say CiviClick made “the ultimate difference” in shooting down the environmental safeguards.
“We did two separate rounds of outreach, and they met the targets in both rounds early,” Klink told political consulting publication Campaigns and Elections in a sponsored interview. “AQMD staff are not used to getting tens of thousands of emails so it [CiviClick] made a massive difference in turning the tide.”
Though Klink claimed that CiviClick was simply an email tool used to connect voters to AQMD staff en-masse, an investigation showed otherwise. As the LA Times notes, at least three people contacted afterward said they weren’t aware that CiviClick had sent comments to AQMD on their behalf.
As sources within AQMD told the newspaper, the onslaught definitely had an impact on the board’s decision, which in-turn played into the hands of the gas industry. (Which, for its part, had been waging a legal battle against the environmental agency since December of 2024.)
As one staffer told the LA Times, the usual amount of public comments per agenda item can be counted on one hand.
Notably, Klink declined to tell the LA Times who had funded the CiviClick campaign. His public affairs company, Klink Campaigns, is a partner at California Strategies, which the paper notes is one of the largest lobbying firms in the state. Its clients include corporate landlord groups, energy conglomerates, and Fortune 500 energy company Sempra, owner of the massive Southern California Gas Company.
While astroturfing is nothing new in US politics, AI-powered astroturfing marks an ominous escalation. On top of signaling a horrifying turn for civic engagement, it opens up a tremendous can of worms for political campaigning across the US. As long as AI can fabricate thousands of constituents on demand, corporate interests no longer need the pretense of democracy — they can just rent it.
Do you know anything about the use of AI in politics? Send us a tip: tips@futurism.com.
More on AI: AI Is Incredibly Good at Changing Voters’ Minds, New Research Finds — With an Incredible Caveat
The post Barrage of Emails From AI Politics Platform Defeats Clean Air Initiative appeared first on Futurism.
