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The only thing growing faster than the artificial-intelligence industry may be Americans\u2019 negative feelings about it\u2014as former Google Chief Executive\u00a0Eric Schmidt\u00a0saw on Friday.<\/p>\n
Delivering a commencement address at the University of Arizona, Schmidt told students the \u201ctechnological transformation\u201d wrought by artificial intelligence will be \u201clarger, faster and more consequential than what came before.\u201d Like some other graduation speakers mentioning AI, Schmidt was met with a chorus of boos.<\/p>\n
In one poll after another in recent weeks, respondents\u00a0have overwhelmingly voiced concerns about AI<\/a>, a challenge to claims by industry executives that their technology would gain popularity by improving people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n Consumers resent\u00a0energy-price jumps<\/a>\u00a0exacerbated by the spread of data centers. Workers fear widespread job losses. Parents worry about AI undermining education and\u00a0harming children\u2019s mental health<\/a>. In recent months, the wave of anger has brought protests, swayed election results and spurred isolated acts of violence.<\/p>\n In April, a 20-year-old Texas man allegedly\u00a0threw a Molotov cocktail<\/a>\u00a0at OpenAI Chief Executive\u00a0Sam Altman\u2019s\u00a0home and made threats at the company\u2019s San Francisco headquarters, according to a federal complaint filed against him. A few days earlier, someone fired 13 shots at the front door of an Indianapolis councilman who had recently approved a data center.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something I never thought would be imaginable,\u201d said Councilman\u00a0Ron Gibson, who found a note saying \u201cNO DATA CENTERS\u201d under his doormat. Two days later, Gibson found a similar note saying \u201cf\u2014 you.\u201d<\/p>\n Pollsters and historians say the souring of public opinion is all but unprecedented in its speed. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen something intensify this quickly,\u201d\u00a0Gregory Ferenstein, who conducted a recent poll with researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, said of the backlash.<\/p>\n The poll showed about 30% of Democrats think America should accelerate AI innovation as quickly as possible, compared with roughly half of Republicans and 77% of tech founders.<\/p>\n Also unprecedented is the rapid rise of AI anxiety\u2019s\u00a0salience as a political issue<\/a>, one that is shaking up routine re-election races and scrambling partisan battle lines, political analysts say.<\/p>\n After bubbling up in a handful of races last year, it has exploded onto the ballot across the country. Voters in Festus, Mo.,\u00a0ousted four city council members<\/a> a week after they approved a $6 billion data center. Dozens of communities in states from Maine to Arizona are trying to ban new data centers. Some 360,000 Americans are in Facebook groups opposed to the facilities, roughly quadruple the number from December, figures from organizations fighting the AI build-out show.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople just feel like they\u2019re under siege,\u201d said Sen.\u00a0Josh Hawley\u00a0(R., Mo.), who has proposed bills to impose new requirements on data centers and AI companies.<\/p>\n AI has risen in importance most quickly among 39 political issues studied by polling firm Blue Rose Research in the past year, though it still trails priorities including the economy, immigration and foreign policy.<\/p>\n While AI rejectionism has put wind in the sails of some campaigns, for AI companies and builders of the data centers that serve them, it\u00a0is creating an acute crisis<\/a>. Investors have staked tens of billions of dollars in capital on the ability of OpenAI, Anthropic and other companies to get access to ever-larger quantities of computing power, and they in turn have pledged much of that capital to fund data-center construction.<\/p>\n The companies are spending\u00a0hundreds of millions of dollars<\/a>\u00a0in the midterm elections to help fight the backlash.<\/p>\n But all over the country, community-level organizations have been succeeding in\u00a0blocking data-center projects<\/a>. Local opposition blocked or delayed at least 48 projects valued at some $156 billion last year, according to Data Center Watch, an organization tracking the trend. A record of 20 were canceled in the first quarter of the year because of local backlash, figures from climate-media outlet and data provider Heatmap show. Dozens more are currently facing similar obstacles on top of obstructions because of permitting snafus and equipment shortages.<\/p>\n On Monday, Texas Agriculture Commissioner\u00a0Sid Miller\u00a0called for a moratorium on new hyperscale data-center development in the state, citing concerns about the costs to farmers and strain on the power grid.<\/p>\n As the poll numbers continue dropping, industry leaders and their allies wonder how much worse they can get and what it will take to turn them around. A string of high-profile layoff announcements in which executives\u00a0have attributed steep job cuts to AI<\/a>\u00a0have furthered Americans\u2019 mistrust of the technology.<\/p>\n Dylan Patel, CEO of AI-infrastructure consulting firm SemiAnalysis, recently predicted there would be large-scale protests against OpenAI and Anthropic within a few months. \u201cPeople hate AI. AI is less popular than [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]. AI is less popular than politicians,\u201d he said on a podcast.<\/p>\n A review of documents aggregated by AI startup Halcyon shows that thousands of people have expressed concerns about data-center costs by filing sharply worded public comments in regulatory dockets as utilities across the country seek approval to power them.<\/p>\n Ndubisi Okoye, a Detroit-based advertising creative director and muralist, was one of them. He learned last year that his utility company had sought approval of a contract to power a data center that\u00a0Oracle<\/a>\u00a0ORCL\u00a0-1.78%<\/span>decrease; red down pointing triangle<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0plans to build near Ann Arbor, Mich.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not want any data centers, especially in Michigan,\u201d he wrote in a public comment. \u201cDo not bring that here ever!\u201d<\/p>\n Okoye said in an interview that he opposes data centers for their impact on the environment, and he worries about the effect artificial intelligence might have on his\u00a0opportunities as an artist<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Memphis, Tenn., 31-year-old\u00a0Justin Pearson\u00a0is finding support by centering data-center opposition in his Democratic campaign for Congress. Pearson has helped lead the fight against\u00a0Elon Musk\u2019s\u00a0xAI over a local data center.<\/p>\n The NAACP recently sued xAI<\/a>, which was acquired by Musk\u2019s SpaceX, claiming the company has illegally operated gas turbines without a valid air permit in nearby Southaven, Miss. Pearson said voters in the Republican area shared the same data-center concerns as many of his Democratic constituents. \u201cWe are building common ground in a powerful way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Big tech companies have promised to\u00a0pay more for electricity<\/a>\u00a0that powers data centers at the urging of President\u00a0Trump, but executives said they need a coordinated effort to highlight the benefits of the tax revenue data centers provide and the ways AI can improve daily life. Trump recently said data centers \u201cneed some PR help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\nRising political issue<\/h3>\n
Persuading the \u2018cave people\u2019<\/h3>\n
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Tennessee state representative Justin Pearson has criticized plans by Elon Musk’s xAI to use gas
\nturbines to power data centers.<\/span>\u00a0Brandon Dill\/