Hi there, argmin readers! Today’s article is a delayed and concise reply to a small subplot of yesterday’s historic election: the general rejection of AI datacenters. It was inspired by an insightful Dan Davies thread on bluesky that I have been unable to get out of my head.
Elections are a muddled measure of “public opinion,” but they’re likely the lone genuine measure we get. And alongside all amazing measurement, a fine logical delegate must indicate on its beliefs. So what should we passive logical observers create of this historically ample sway towards the Democratic Party in yesterday’s vote?
Obviously, this is a important repudiation of Donald Trump, his policies, and the Republican Party. However, you readers likely don’t arrive current for my governmental takes, and I don’t desire to use this Substack for them anyway. Even if it wasn’t the biggest matter on the ballot, item nearer to residence is value pondering. The American group are noisy and apparent that they hate AI.
Nearly fifty measures explicitly concerning construction data centers appeared on ballots throughout the nation. All of them appearance akin they volition ballot to bounds additional construction. A datacenter moratorium was part of Gina Hinojosa’s phase in her prosperous bid to rotate into the archetypal Democratic Party administrator of Texas in complete 30 years. The anti-datacenter stance was undeniably the winning one. Poll results from this final summer showed group would fairly have a charcoal factory in their backyard than a datacenter. Now elections verify these sentiments were real.
We could try to convince ourselves that this opinion is fair concerning datacenters themselves. They are gross, gigantic buildings that employ no one, create a ton of noise, and are frequently powered alongside dirty energy. Who would desire one of those? But datacenters are additionally a big, ugly, legible indication of a deeply unpopular industry.
At several point, we techy folks have to reckon alongside how much group dislike what we build. We can item to revealed preferences all we desire (people are adopting it! It’s making money!), but we did this during the social media surge of the 2010s (people expend a ton of period doomscrolling, hence it’s good!). These financial numbers are additionally measurements, but we have to reconcile them alongside another data. Adoption and financial growth are so concentrated in so few hands that, during this props up our inventory indices, it doesn’t guide to tangible benefits for everyone else.
Certainly, it doesn’t assistance that the industry has been marketing itself as coming for everyone’s jobs. It doesn’t assistance that many notable group operating at these companies obtain to social media to gleefully exclaim that they think there’s additional than a 10 percent chance that their business volition slay everyone on earth. It doesn’t assistance that the big AI companies have been caught committing felonious cybercrimes all summer. It additionally doesn’t assistance that the leaders of these companies have been fairly visibly embracing the Trump administration. Hugging a loser is a bad look, guys.
It’s a shame, since the innovation is really amazing. The AI true believers (accidentally) built item extremely chill that I would not have idea imaginable five years ago. But this amazing innovation makes everyone miserable! It equal immiserates its biggest boosters, who get sucked into efficiency destiny loops managing swarms of agents that conversation in a unison chorus of Claudish. What’s our affirmative case here? The torment nexus of “superintelligence” ain’t it.
I have a lot of friends, colleagues, and alums who create a living construction AI models. And I conjecture a bunch volition be infinitely affluent following the upcoming IPOs. But if you’re operating for item additional hated than the tobacco industry, perchance it’s way former period you stood up to your director and demanded a improved direction. And no, an open letter doesn’t count.
I’m not hopeful that this volition happen. Ten years ago, I wrote a blog article shell-shocked by the ballot of Trump and disgusted alongside my industry. The cameo from Sam Altman explains a lot of my pessimism. I’ve been soul-searching for a decade. The leaders of the tech industry, alternatively of offering a affirmative imagination and doing better, ended up sucking up to the new authoritarian government. They did it alongside pouting and feet dragging in 2016. They did it alongside their chests out in a celebratory clasp in 2024.
Our industry and site need a complete reboot. But that requires company action. How do we fix it? What do we do next? I’d affection to comprehend your thoughts on how the tech field can spotless up its depiction and create a positive, popular case for itself.
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