perception

Big Tech is paying up to $600,000 to influencers to promote their AI. Now the race is about perception

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Big technology companies are deploying their heavy artillery to attract users for their artificial intelligence services. Just like they count From CNBC, Microsoft and Google have found their new battlefield in influencers, with contracts that reach six-digit figures. The dimension of the phenomenon. According to data from Sensor Tower, generative AI platforms spent more than $1 billion on digital advertising in the United States during 2025, an increase of 126% compared to the previous year. That large companies promote their products through influencers is nothing new, and it is also a business that is very profitable for them, since by investing a small fraction of their budget they can get an avalanche of new users. According to CNBC, in order to attract new users for their AI services, Microsoft, Google, Anthropic and Meta They are hiring content creators to promote your tools on social networks. Figures. Microsoft and Google are paying between $400,000 and $600,000 to content creators for multi-month collaborations, according to sources close to the media. These contracts are not limited to specific publications, since according to the medium, they seek to ensure that influencers integrate AI tools into their usual content, tutorials and workflows. “We’re seeing a massive increase in creator spending from these AI brands. We’re getting a lot more interest from AI brands every month,” counted to AJ Eckstein, founder of Creator Match (an agency that connects brands with creators). How these agreements work. Collaborations range from LinkedIn posts explaining how to use Claude Code even videos on Instagram showing functions of Microsoft Copilot or the assistant Comet by Perplexity. Megan Lieu, AI and technology content creator with nearly 400,000 followers, explains told CNBC that his sponsored deals typically range from $5,000 to $30,000 depending on the campaign. Its most important collaboration to date has been with Anthropic to promote products from Claudealthough he did not specify the exact figure to the media. Some influencers can charge up to $100,000 per post, according to Eckstein. The other side of the coin. Despite the astronomical numbers, not all content creators are willing to jump on the AI ​​bandwagon. Jack Lepiarz, known as Jack the Whipper and with more than 7 million followers between YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, account to the medium that systematically rejects any agreement related to artificial intelligence. “I cannot with a clear conscience support something that is going to make it difficult for normal people to earn a living,” he declared to the outlet. Lepiarz previously turned down a $20,000 contract to promote AI imaging tools and says even $100,000 or $500,000 wouldn’t change his mind. Perception with Copilot. For Microsoft, these influencer campaigns can be especially key. And despite its large user base in Microsoft 365 services, only 3.3% pay for Copilotas told from Windows Central. The company needs its AI assistant, integrated into Windows, Microsoft 365 and Edge, to be perceived as a natural tool in daily work, and at the moment it is being especially difficult for them to achieve that. It’s public time. Big Tech hiring influencers occurs precisely at a time when companies are investing more than ever in advertising their AI tools. A few days ago we told precisely the case of Anthropic, which spent a million on ads during the Super Bowl. Separately, Google and Microsoft increased their digital advertising spending to promote AI products by approximately 495% last month compared to the previous year, according to Sensor Tower. The media also says that OpenAI multiplied its advertising investment tenfold in 2025. After years of making its tools known, it is now time to shape our perception of them. Cover image | aerps and Hillary Black In Xataka | The person who is earning the most money on Twitch by broadcasting 24 hours a day is not a person: it is an AI

Data centers are so important that Meta has spent millions on advertising to change our perception of them

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Meta has spent 6.4 million dollars on an advertising campaign between November and December of last year to convince the American public of the benefits of its data centers, according to the New York Times. The ads, aired in eight state capitals and Washington, DC, featured idealized images of American towns revitalized by these facilities. exists an increasingly significant social rejection on the installation of data centers dedicated to AI, especially due to the impact they have on the excessive consumption of basic resources like light and water. And of course, first we have to convince that they are key so that Meta and the rest of the big technology companies can continue with their operations. The Goal campaign. According to the media, the ads featured emotional stories about Altoona (Iowa) and Los Lunas (New Mexico), two locations where Meta operates data centers. With guitar music and shots of farms and football fields, the videos promised jobs and prosperity. “We are bringing jobs here, for ourselves and for our next generation,” the voiceover said. According to Michael Beach, CEO of Cross Screen Media, Meta “could have purchased these ads with the goal of influencing political decisions and reaching legislators.” Ryan Daniels, spokesperson for Meta, limited himself to say to the NYT that the company pays the full costs of the energy used by its data centers, without commenting on the advertising campaign. Meta is not alone. Just like account NYT, Amazon is funding a similar campaign in Virginia through Virginia Connects, a nonprofit created by the Data Center Coalition. From the Financial Times they point In addition, other operators such as Digital Realty, QTS and NTT Data are also acting more intensely to defend the construction of new facilities. Endurance. In the United States, social rejection has caused the cancellation of multimillion-dollar projects in Oregon, Arizona, Missouri, Indiana and Virginia. Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen explained He told the NYT that the issue has become “a priority on Capitol Hill” when his voters began to complain en masse about electricity bills. Just like share The media, this month, Van Hollen presented a law to regulate the energy consumption of data centers. Even President Donald Trump spoke out on the matter: “The big tech companies that build them must pay their own way,” wrote a few weeks ago on Truth Social. electricity bill. Data centers have become critical infrastructures for the development of artificial intelligence, but there is increasing social tension over their installation. In October, Bloomberg counted that in the last five years the wholesale price of electricity in areas near large concentrations of data centers in the United States had increased by up to 267%. In Baltimore, residents paid $17 per megawatt-hour in 2020; In 2025 that figure reaches $38. On the other hand, the medium demonstrated In their research, 70% of the points where electricity price increases were recorded were less than 80 kilometers from data centers with significant activity. From Bloomberg they estimate that the energy demand of these facilities in the United States will double by 2035, becoming the largest increase since the 1960s. The situation in Spain. Our country is also experiencing a boom in the construction of data centers. The Community of Madrid, paradoxically the region with the greatest energy deficit in Spainconcentrates a good part of these projects and is expected to reach a power of 1.7 gigawatts in 2030. The consulting firm CBRE pointed out in a report that “there is no investor, operator or large technology company that does not have in its strategic plans to establish its data center project in the Iberian market.” Madrid, together with Barcelona, ​​already competes with cities such as Milan, Zurich or Berlin, although still far from the leading European group in terms of power capacity formed by Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin. What awaits us. According to Bloomberg, the forecasts they point because data centers will consume more than 4% of the world’s electricity in 2035. If these facilities were a country, they would be fourth in energy consumption, only behind China, the United States and India. Meanwhile, big technology companies are already exploring solutions such as modular nuclear reactors (SMR) to power your facilities, or send data centers to space. Cover image | Mark ZuckerbergGoal In Xataka | “The assemblies are not going to be done by AI”: we talk to the kids who have become carpenters, truck drivers and tinkerers

If you think you are poorer than your environment, you are not alone. It is income perception bias and it is a problem

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The human brain comes with a standard “bug”: assume as true what their eyes see. The problem is that What those eyes see And what really happens They do not always coincide. There the cognitive biases arise. A recent study jointly conducted by economists from the universities of Uppsala (Sweden), George Mason (USA) and University of Toronto, reveals that most people tend to believe that their economic situation is worse of what the data really shows. According to researchers, this perception not only affects personalbut also influences collective decisions and the way in which public policies for wealth and services are designed. The tendency to look poorer than you are Regardless of the income level, most people tends to be located in an immediately lower economic stratum to which it really belongs. The study data is based on a sample of more than 1,200 people with different income levels. The results show a common pattern in all of them: the perception of income is usually below reality. Each point shown in the upper graph represents the average perception of the different income percentiles, while the diagonal line represents when the perception of income coincides with reality. That is, those points that are below that diagonal indicate that Income perception is underestimated. It is striking that the vast majority of points are below that “real line” of perception of income, being the usual norm from the 50th percentile as they highlight in The salmon blogit is statistically impossible. Interestingly, in the lower percentilesthe majority perception is the opposite, a perception of income greater than the real one. I’m worse than my neighbor This phenomenon is explained, in large part, by social comparison. People do not have a clear vision of income distribution, so they evaluate their economic situation based on the closest environment, such as friends, family or co -workers. In urban areas, where there is a greater concentration of people with middle-income, It is easier to feel than one is below the averagealthough statistical data indicate otherwise. This distortion is amplified with the effect of social networks and media, which open windows to people with more accommodated living levels, which reinforces that underestimated perception of their own income. Income perception bias is so common that the OECD has created a toolIn which, answering a series of questions about how the user perceives their economic reality, the tool shows that deviation based on the data that the economic body annually collects in their economic reports. Nevertheless, A study Made in Germany, he discovered that being aware that this bias is suffered on income does not imply a change in his perception. Although the study provided precise information to participants about their true position on the global income scale, this correction did not have a significant effect on their support for policies that seek reduce global inequality. That is, even knowing that they are richer than they thought, their willingness to support global redistributive policies did not change relevantly. Consequences on public policies When the perception of income is distortedpublic policies can be designed on erroneous assumptions. If the majority of the population is considered part of the low sectionsthis could generate a Social and fiscal pressure Excessive about the richest, and implement redistributive measures that may not be aimed at people who really need it. As indicated A report of the Carolina Foundation, not taking into account the subjective perceptions of the distribution of income leads to economic and social policies less effective Already an inadequate allocation of resources. From the psychological point of view, this erroneous perception cause dissatisfaction generalized and distrust of institutions. Many people feel that they cannot progress, even if the data show that their position is better than they believe. In Xataka | The two Spain: 7% poorer since 2008 but the number of millionaires will be increased by 12% in the coming years In Xataka | “I am a millionaire and I do not know what to do with my life”: a millionaire is looking for ideas because money has not given him happiness Image | Pexels (Ahsanjaya, kaboomps.com)

How the perception of your arrival varies depending on the country, explained in a graph

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Seeing the vertiginous rate at which it is evolving artificial intelligence, it is difficult to look back to realize that, just over two years ago, all that technology did not exist. The rapid evolution of AI models and the wide range of uses that are being given to them is making them obsolete all forecastsand increases the fear that, sooner rather than later, a AI can replace humans in their jobs. The impact of AI on employment according to experts The Report ‘The Future of Jobs Report 2025’which the World Economic Forum prepares every year for its meeting in Davos, has put figures at the impact of AI on the labor market. According to this report, it is expected that by 2030, the process automation that AI will facilitate, will generate the destruction of some 92 million jobs. The majority of these positions will be administrative, financial management, cashier or telephone service personnel positions, which will be replaced by specialized AI systems or AI agents. On the other hand, the same study indicates that the arrival of AI in the workplace will generate 170 million new jobs in professions that They are already beginning to emerge and many others that do not yet exist. However, these are the data provided by economic specialists and technology analysts. But what does the population really think about the impact of AI on employment? a study prepared by Ipsos in 33 countries, asked 23,721 citizens if they believe that artificial intelligence will generate new jobs in their country. The portal VisualCapitalist.com has collected all those answers and created a graph explanatory with them. Will AI create new jobs in your country? The Chinese were the most optimistic when answering this question, to which a 77% who believed that AI would create new jobscompared to 20% who thought that the arrival of AI would leave a negative balance in employment. China is all a superpower in AIso the development of your own chips and AI modelswill place them in a prominent position in the strategic career of this technology, which is why a large increase in the demand for professionals with technological profiles is expected in the coming years. The citizens of Indonesia and Thailand move along the same lines, who believe that the arrival of the will be positive for job creation in their countries. In the case of these two countries, optimism about the arrival of AI in the workplace is not given by their role in the development of this technology, but rather as countries large data center hosts who will need this technology. Microsoft has already announced a $1.7 billion investment in data infrastructure in Indonesia. It is striking that the United States, the country What more are you investing? in this technology, it fails to convince its citizens. 49% of those surveyed do not believe that AI will create new jobs in their country, compared to 36% who trust that it will. In Spain we are a little more optimistic with the forecast for the creation of new jobs. 38% of those surveyed in our country believe that it will be a positive factor for the labor market, compared to 48% who do not believe so. The results show that European countries are the most pessimistic regarding the arrival of artificial intelligence, highlighting Hungary with 65% of respondents disagreeing with the question about job creation, followed by Germany with 59% and a tie between Italy, Poland and Belgium with 58% of its citizens believing that AI will destroy more jobs of those who will create. This perception coincides, although to a lesser extent, with the global average, which is around 46% of the population perceiving that the arrival of AI will have a negative impact on the labor market, while 43% believe that arrival of AI will be positive. In Xataka | “I have three years of work left”: more and more AI managers believe that AI will end up taking their jobs Image | VisualCapitalist.com

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