Doom Groups and Tech Missteps Fuel Backlash Against AI Data Centers
Reactions from ranked influencers
2 posts
That's too simple. It's a combination of things, a perfect storm really: 1) Doom groups, that are fantastic at astrotuding and media blitzes, getting out tons of disinformation and fear. Doomer linked YouTube about AI has 300M views. 2) The big labs own tin-eared communication and ham-fisted attempts a regulatory capture, where they constantly blather about how "dangerous" it is and how it will wipe out jobs. 3) General sense of disenfranchisement among various groups of the American public who feel like the American dream has passed them by, glombing on to something that is a Boogeyman they have no experience with because they're afraid. Most people can't do anything about AI but they can NIMYB a datacenter as a proxy. 4) Many fool tech bro style idiots inside companies talking openly about wanting to replace workers or "just use AI to do it" when it's not justified/viable/possible because thet spent too much time on X seeing some cherry picked Seedfance video and thinking they can replace their whole advertising team with a prompt. So what happens? Workers slow down or sabotage AI efforts or have to struggle to mat AI do something they could have done faster and better without it. 5) Politicians wanting to "get ahead" of the next tech revolution because they feel they didn't get ahead enough of the Internet. Of course this is delusional. The number one question by congress people during the passing of Section 230 was "what is the Internet?" And these guys are supposed to predict Uber, TikTok, Airbnb, Wikipedia, Git, social media and YouTube? But ignorance never stops people who want to "do something now." 6) Protectionist ultranationalist policies that are increasingly short sighted. 7) And, of course, foreign APTs simply noticing all of the above and running with it to juice it up and make it worse. So yes and no. Coordinated and uncoordinated. Really more like a perfect storm that spells the end of the American century is we are not careful and don't wake up and change course fast.
I've seen a lot of posts pointing to some dark conspiracy of coordinated efforts to hurt America by sabotaging datacenters. In reality we have a self reinforcing vicious circle, a perfect storm of hundreds of ugly factors all swirling together and creating a lethal cloud that threatens to kill off the American century for good. It's both coordinated and uncoordinated, all of it self-reinforcing. 1) Doom groups, who are fantastic at astroturfing and media blitzes, getting out tons of disinformation and fear. Doomer linked YouTube about AI has 300M views and they've spent billions on FUD and fear mongering. 2) The big labs own tin-eared communication and ham-fisted attempts a regulatory capture, where they constantly blather about how "dangerous" it is and how it will wipe out jobs. 3) General sense of disenfranchisement among various groups of the American public who feel like the American dream has passed them by, glombing onto something that is a Boogeyman they have no experience with and because they're afraid. Most people can't do anything about AI but they can NIMYB a datacenter as a proxy. 4) Many fool tech bro style idiots inside companies talking openly about wanting to replace workers or "just use AI to do it" when it's not justified/viable/possible because they spent too much time on X seeing some cherry picked Seeddance video and thinking they can replace their whole advertising team with a prompt. So what happens? Workers slow down or sabotage AI efforts or have to struggle to make AI do something they could have done faster and better without it. 5) Politicians wanting to "get ahead" of the next tech revolution because they feel they didn't get ahead enough of the Internet. Of course this is delusional. The number one question by congress people during the passing of Section 230 was "what is the Internet?" And these guys are supposed to predict Uber, TikTok, Airbnb, Wikipedia, Git, social media and YouTube? But ignorance never stops people who want to "do something now." 6) Protectionist ultranationalist policies that are increasingly short sighted. 7) And, of course, foreign APTs simply noticing all of the above and running with it to juice it up and make it worse. Coordinated and uncoordinated. Hand in hand. A perfect storm that spells the end of the American century if we're not careful and don't wake up and change course fast.
Thought experiment: What outcome would *most* harm US interests? One good answer: Slowing AI progress by turning the American public against data centers. I think it’s VERY likely there’s a coordinated influence campaign to turn Americans against data centers to weaken the country. The technical arguments being made are generally incorrect, trumped up or blown out of proportion. Love to debate this openly with folks: do you agree, disagree? What data do we have?