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Americans Hate AI. Will the Democrats Join Them? (Aaron Regunberg, The New Republic)
I'd missed this when it was published November 12.
https://newrepublic.com/article/202878/ai-data-centers-democrats-election-wedge-issue
-snip-
Last week’s election results demonstrated the first concrete proof of the potency of an anti-AI message, as the effects of AI data centers on utility bills played a significant role in several major Democratic victories. In New Jersey, Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill’s closing argument was a pledge to freeze electricity rates, which have soared because of data-center demand. In Virginia, Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger won after pledging to make data centers “pay their own way,” and many Democrats went even further. At least one candidate, John McAuliff, flipped a seat in the House of Delegates by focusing almost entirely on tying his Republican opponent to the “unchecked growth” of data centers, with an ad that asked, “Do you want more of these in your backyard?” And in Georgia, Democrats won their first nonfederal statewide races in decades, earning 60 percent of the vote against two Republican members of the Public Service Commission by criticizing Big Tech “sweetheart deals” and campaigning for policies “to ensure that the communities that they’re extracting from” don’t end up with their “water supplies … tapped out or their energy … maxed out.”
As these election results suggest, data center opposition is remarkably bipartisan. A large proportion of Big Tech’s AI infrastructure buildout is occurring in red states, like Indiana, Texas, Ohio, and West Virginia, where data centers have added billions of dollars to household energy bills and inspired serious hostility from Democrats and Republicans alike. As one conservative anti–data center activist in Oklahoma said, “We’d probably see our elections flip, too, if people started running on it.” Or as Virginia state Senator Danica Roem put it, “There are a lot of people willing to be single-issue, split-ticket voters based on this.”
-snip-
Americans understand they’re getting a raw deal on this. A Pew Research Center poll in the spring found that only 17 percent of Americans believe AI will have a positive impact on the United States over the next 20 years, while only 11 percent say they are more excited than concerned about the increased use of AI in daily life, compared to 51 percent who say the opposite. And a January Axios poll found that 72 percent of Americans have a negative opinion about how AI will impact the spread of false information, with 64 percent saying the same about its impacts on social connections.
-snip-
All of these interconnected dynamics are coming together to create a massive opening for Democrats to eviscerate the Trump administration, which has gone all in on fast-tracking permitting for AI infrastructure, rolling out the red carpet for AI billionaires, and even threatening to cut federal funding for states that try to regulate AI. But to fully exploit that opening, Democrats must be able to point to an authentic and believable—in short, a real—record of standing up to the industry. That may require a fight with members of the party’s corporatist wing, who remain ever ready to sacrifice Democrats’ electoral odds at the altar of their big-business backers.
-snip-
Last week’s election results demonstrated the first concrete proof of the potency of an anti-AI message, as the effects of AI data centers on utility bills played a significant role in several major Democratic victories. In New Jersey, Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill’s closing argument was a pledge to freeze electricity rates, which have soared because of data-center demand. In Virginia, Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger won after pledging to make data centers “pay their own way,” and many Democrats went even further. At least one candidate, John McAuliff, flipped a seat in the House of Delegates by focusing almost entirely on tying his Republican opponent to the “unchecked growth” of data centers, with an ad that asked, “Do you want more of these in your backyard?” And in Georgia, Democrats won their first nonfederal statewide races in decades, earning 60 percent of the vote against two Republican members of the Public Service Commission by criticizing Big Tech “sweetheart deals” and campaigning for policies “to ensure that the communities that they’re extracting from” don’t end up with their “water supplies … tapped out or their energy … maxed out.”
As these election results suggest, data center opposition is remarkably bipartisan. A large proportion of Big Tech’s AI infrastructure buildout is occurring in red states, like Indiana, Texas, Ohio, and West Virginia, where data centers have added billions of dollars to household energy bills and inspired serious hostility from Democrats and Republicans alike. As one conservative anti–data center activist in Oklahoma said, “We’d probably see our elections flip, too, if people started running on it.” Or as Virginia state Senator Danica Roem put it, “There are a lot of people willing to be single-issue, split-ticket voters based on this.”
-snip-
Americans understand they’re getting a raw deal on this. A Pew Research Center poll in the spring found that only 17 percent of Americans believe AI will have a positive impact on the United States over the next 20 years, while only 11 percent say they are more excited than concerned about the increased use of AI in daily life, compared to 51 percent who say the opposite. And a January Axios poll found that 72 percent of Americans have a negative opinion about how AI will impact the spread of false information, with 64 percent saying the same about its impacts on social connections.
-snip-
All of these interconnected dynamics are coming together to create a massive opening for Democrats to eviscerate the Trump administration, which has gone all in on fast-tracking permitting for AI infrastructure, rolling out the red carpet for AI billionaires, and even threatening to cut federal funding for states that try to regulate AI. But to fully exploit that opening, Democrats must be able to point to an authentic and believable—in short, a real—record of standing up to the industry. That may require a fight with members of the party’s corporatist wing, who remain ever ready to sacrifice Democrats’ electoral odds at the altar of their big-business backers.
-snip-
Much more at the link. No paywall.
This isn't just about data centers. Regunberg mentions the AI bubble (with the AI companies wanting the federal government to give them loan guarantees leaving taxpayers on the hook), the job losses from AI, and AI's enshittification of society and the internet.
Regunberg tweeted about this November 12 article today because David Dayen, editor of the American Prospect, had tweeted this morning about Jeffries' new House Democratic Commission on AI being much too pro-business and pro-Silicon Valley.
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