The backlash from communities against data centers is reaching immense proportions.

Residents of Monterey Park, California, voted overwhelmingly (about 86% in favor) to permanently ban datacenters, making it the first US city to enact such a ban through a ballot initiative rather than a council-passed moratorium.

The vote reflects broader national backlash against AI datacenters - a recent Gallup poll found 7 in 10 Americans oppose construction in their local areas -with at least a dozen states now weighing moratoriums.

Two thoughts on this:

1) It explains why Satya Nadella spent a relatively large amount of time at Microsoft Build addressing the prejudices and concerns surrounding data centers. The backlash is truly becoming a major problem.

2) Besides the understandable concerns (electricity costs, water consumption, real estate prices) that can actually be addressed, I often read that it's recurring resentment, prejudice against AI. I can't fully assess what's behind it. Presumably, it's a mixture of fear (of what's to come, what isn't understood) as well as the fear of losing one's own dominance as a human being (hubris; In his 1917 essay "A Difficulty in Psychoanalysis," Sigmund Freud coined the term "three great 'affronts to humanity'." These describe scientific findings that profoundly shook the human self-image and knocked humanity from its pedestal of supposed uniqueness and absolute control. AI is presumably bringing us the fourth).

These concerns will increase, and so will the backlash. I'm worried that it will reach dramatic proportions. Data centers are needed; they are essential. To quote Demis Hassabis, AI will bring us in the golden age of science. For this, the expansion of data centers is necessary.

Source: The Guardian