The American Rebellion Against AI Is Gaining Steam

Booed commencement speakers, blocked data centers, plummeting poll numbers: Fast-growing industry has a faster-growing crisis

By Amrith Ramkumar, Katherine Blunt and Lindsay Ellis of The WSJ. 

I used a book called The Economics Of Macro Issues by Daniel Benjamin and Roger LeRoy Miller. It mentioned Luddites, people who destroyed industrial equipment in England in the early 1800s. They were weavers who lost their jobs to new machinery. 

This is not exactly the same. But it is similar in the sense that there are acts of violence due to new technology.

Excerpts from the article:

"Consumers resent energy-price jumps exacerbated by the spread of data centers. Workers fear widespread job losses. Parents worry about AI undermining education and harming children’s mental health. In recent months, the wave of anger has brought protests, swayed election results and spurred isolated acts of violence.

In April, a 20-year-old Texas man allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman’s home and made threats at the company’s 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."

"The poll (from Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley) 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."

"Voters in Festus, Mo., ousted four city council members 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"

"Local opposition blocked or delayed at least 48 projects valued at some $156 billion last year"

"A record of 20 were canceled in the first quarter of the year because of local backlash"

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