Everyone* hates data centers now.
How did that happen?
There are lots of theories: People are worried about the environment. Or electric bills. Or their jobs. Or imperious Big Tech billionaires ordering them around. All of the above.
Also: It’s China’s fault.
That last one doesn’t come up in polling. But it’s quite popular on certain corners of the pro-AI internet.
The theory spelled out: China wants Americans to turn against AI data centers, so that America will fall behind China in the AI race. So it is using the internet to brainwash Americans to hate data centers. A psyop, per prominent VC Garry Tan:
Is that possible?
Maaaaaaaybe: In June, OpenAI said it had evidence some China-linked accounts were trying to use ChatGPT to generate anti-AI content they could distribute on social media, like this:
OpenAI
But that same report said it didn’t have any evidence that those efforts had shifted public opinion.
And after celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary accused opponents of his Utah data center of working on behalf of China, he later acknowledged that he had “no evidence” that was true, and walked the claim back (so did Fox News).
It would not be surprising if it eventually turns out that there was a coordinated social media campaign to try to influence how Americans feel about AI and data centers. All kinds of people use social media to try to influence sentiment. And after the 2016 election, social media platforms started paying extra attention to documenting covert efforts that tried to do that.
It’s also possible that it’s easier for bad actors to act badly on social media right now. In the years after Elon Musk bought Twitter, social media platforms have gutted the trust and safety teams that used to monitor those platforms. Outside watchdogs, like the Stanford Internet Observatory, have been shuttered or neutered.
Then again: Everyone who owns a big social media platform in the US is also pouring many tens of billions into AI, much of which is going to US data center projects.
So if you think that X, or Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, or Google’s YouTube, or TikTok (whose US operations are partly owned by Larry Ellison’s Oracle) are being used to turn Americans against AI, you’d think that those platforms might be doing something to stop that.
Instead, the Big Tech industry’s main response to Americans not liking its AI plans is to lecture people online, and complain about the industry’s messaging. (Meta has also just dangled a $1 billion fund for towns that host its data centers.)
But “we need a better message/messenger” and “our message isn’t working because of China” are two sides of the same coin: The belief that people are misguided because they’ve been misguided, and not because they actually feel that way.
And if that sounds familiar, think about your own reactions to things you can’t abide — like, say, an election result.
It’s quite tempting to blame Mark Zuckerberg or Rupert Murdoch for the fact that many of your fellow citizens voted for someone or something you find abhorrent. It’s much harder to grapple with the fact that many of your fellow citizens hold beliefs you can’t stand.
Welcome to the club, Big Tech.
*Ok. Not everyone. But a supermajority of Americans are opposed to data centers — an astonishing number for a country that can’t agree on just about anything else.
