Hostility toward the building of new data centers for AI development was the subject of this post last December, and the issue has grown rather than diminished.
"I’ve never seen anything like the raging rebellion against data centers and AI," says a journalist who's been documenting it.
Even the influential country music star Willie Nelson has weighed in: “The last thing we need is a loud, water-thieving, light-polluting data center anywhere near our town (or any others for that matter).”
A poll reported last March that about 49% of Americans opposed them, and a new poll in August claimed that the percentage is now up to 61%.
(Excitement about the future of AI is itself in decline. See the reaction of college students graduating last spring.)
Most of the objections to the building of new data centers were summarized in my post last December: "enormous energy needs, possible local electricity rate hikes, possible pollution, and the draining of water resources . ."
But there's another possible reason for the big anti-data center trend, which is tomorrow's subject.
(cont'd tomorrow)
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