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SAN FRANCISCO — Bay Area advocates are calling on California Attorney General Rob Bonta and San Francisco, Alameda County, and Santa Clara County District Attorneys Brooke Jenkins, Ursula Jones Dickson, and Jeff Rosen investigate an AI-powered astroturf campaign that allegedly used real residents’ personal information to send fake emails to Bay Area Air District board members — without their knowledge or consent.
The campaign was run by the Common Sense Coalition, an industry association backed by the Bay Area Council — a powerful business group whose membership includes the Western States Petroleum Association, Chevron, Martinez Refinery Company, and Phillips 66. The coalition used an AI-powered platform called Speak4 to submit public comments to send emails targeting the Bay Area Air District as it weighs multiple critical standards to reduce toxic air pollution across nine Bay Area counties…