Industry giants panicking as opposition to AI intensifies with unprecedented speed: report

Public opposition to artificial intelligence is intensifying at an unprecedented pace, posing a serious challenge to the industry's expansion plans and reshaping electoral dynamics across the country, according to a new report.

The backlash burst into view in recent weeks when former Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt was met with chorus of boos while delivering a University of Arizona commencement address, and real estate executive Gloria Caulfield met a similar reaction during her commencement address at the University of Central Florida, reported the Wall Street Journal.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen something intensify this quickly,” said Gregory Ferenstein, who was part of a team that conducted a recent poll at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.

That poll found about 30 percent of Democrats think America should accelerate AI innovation as quickly as possible, compared with roughly half of Republicans and 77 percent of tech founders, and the technology and the data centers it relies on have quickly become a major political issue.

“People just feel like they’re under siege,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who has proposed bills to address data centers and AI companies.

Public anger has manifested in increasingly alarming ways. 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 company headquarters. Days earlier, someone fired 13 shots at the front door of an Indianapolis councilman who had approved a data center, and he reported finding obscene notes stating opposition to data centers.

Consumers resent soaring energy prices exacerbated by data center proliferation, while workers fear widespread job losses, particularly after executives attributed steep layoffs to AI implementation. Parents worry about mental health impacts on children, and rural communities fear strain on power grids.

This anxiety has rapidly become a dominant political issue. Voters in Festus, Missouri, ousted four city council members a week after they approved a $6 billion data center, while dozens of communities nationwide are attempting to ban new facilities. Facebook opposition groups have grown from roughly 90,000 members in December to 360,000 currently.

Local opposition has blocked or delayed at least 48 projects valued at $156 billion last year, with a record 20 canceled in the first quarter due to community backlash. Congressional candidates, including Democrat Justin Pearson in Memphis, are centering data-center opposition in their campaigns, finding unexpected common ground across partisan lines.

The industry is spending hundreds of millions of dollars fighting the backlash while facing a genuine crisis. Tens of billions in investor capital depend on AI companies accessing ever-larger computing quantities. OpenAI's Chris Lehane blamed "doomers," social-media anger, and negative coverage for undermining public support.

"If you're going to constantly talk about AI from a fear perspective, you are going to drive fear," Lehane said.

Industry executives acknowledge the messaging problem. One called opponents "cave people," while another noted the fundamental disconnect between industry messaging and public sentiment.

"There's a disconnect between what we're saying and what is happening out there," said Ernest Popescu, CEO of the Indianapolis data center company.