It’s probably not your ideological thing, or mine. It’s about object-level claims about how data centers impact the communities where they’re built, many of which are wrong.
Yes. While I'm sure there are ideologues in every group, you indeed get the impression that if the hyperscalers said, "Fine, we'll build an even bigger one in Ohio!", the protesters would say, "Fine, you do you, just keep it away from our town." They aren't protesting data centers in general, or "AI slop", or "hire an artist, you thieves". They are protesting this data center, here, or - if there are coordination benefits - at least in the sate.
The drumbeat of panics about AI/ML energy/water consumption that started well before ChatGPT does seem like the main culprit, but I'm still amazed at the deep traction this got. There's some perfect storm of emotional and purity triggers here that makes the issue very resonant.
Their actual result is just that people are ticking either "much more supportive" or "somewhat more supportive" on a multiple choice question when given the argument about water recycling and asked "Does knowing this information change your view of data centers?"
What to make of that result? I'm not sure as I don't have intuitions for how to interpret these kinds of polling questions. I'm very suspicious of social desirability bias here. Other arguments put up similar "net shift" numbers in this format, such as data centers creating jobs, paying taxes, or (weirdly) "AI can fight inflation".
Sorry, and also, of the 19 articles you cite reporting on the environmental concerns with AI ie water consumption, you say some are false-which ones, please? And is it unreasonable, given the concerning reports across the board from these media outlets (and others), that this messaging became widespread and got stuck into peoples' thinking about AI? Full disclosure that I have not finished reading the full text of this post, but I already have a lot of questions along the way!
Am I correct in understanding that the Harvard Cap Harris Poll you refer to when indicating the views of Americans' favourability/unfavourability towards big tech is from 2021 and uses a sampling of about 2,000 people?
Yes. While I'm sure there are ideologues in every group, you indeed get the impression that if the hyperscalers said, "Fine, we'll build an even bigger one in Ohio!", the protesters would say, "Fine, you do you, just keep it away from our town." They aren't protesting data centers in general, or "AI slop", or "hire an artist, you thieves". They are protesting this data center, here, or - if there are coordination benefits - at least in the sate.
The drumbeat of panics about AI/ML energy/water consumption that started well before ChatGPT does seem like the main culprit, but I'm still amazed at the deep traction this got. There's some perfect storm of emotional and purity triggers here that makes the issue very resonant.
The "cost" of not building them is remote and abstract to people. This is a cheap easy way to oppose something and claim that you're doing good.
Helpful! Thank you!
Unfortunately the 31pp result you cite from the Rainey Center is extremely misleadingly framed by them.
They say "support swings by a net +31 points" but what they mean by this, if you look at page 5 (https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/663a60b91deeae06e8ae1d1c/6a317d2d221255ef40039b0a_RaineyCenter_DataCenters_May2026_Memo_8.5x11_r1_digital.pdf?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email), is that upon hearing the water recycling argument, 37% of respondents become *more supportive* and 6% become *less supportive*, leading to what they call "net shift" of 37 - 6 = 31 points.
Their actual result is just that people are ticking either "much more supportive" or "somewhat more supportive" on a multiple choice question when given the argument about water recycling and asked "Does knowing this information change your view of data centers?"
What to make of that result? I'm not sure as I don't have intuitions for how to interpret these kinds of polling questions. I'm very suspicious of social desirability bias here. Other arguments put up similar "net shift" numbers in this format, such as data centers creating jobs, paying taxes, or (weirdly) "AI can fight inflation".
Oh great thank you! Will circle back and edit
Sorry, and also, of the 19 articles you cite reporting on the environmental concerns with AI ie water consumption, you say some are false-which ones, please? And is it unreasonable, given the concerning reports across the board from these media outlets (and others), that this messaging became widespread and got stuck into peoples' thinking about AI? Full disclosure that I have not finished reading the full text of this post, but I already have a lot of questions along the way!
I have a rundown of the way the articles can be misleading in this section of the water post! https://blog.andymasley.com/p/the-ai-water-issue-is-fake?open=false#%C2%A7every-popular-article-about-how-ais-water-use-is-bad-for-the-environment-in-the-last-year-has-had-a-wildly-misleading-framing
Am I correct in understanding that the Harvard Cap Harris Poll you refer to when indicating the views of Americans' favourability/unfavourability towards big tech is from 2021 and uses a sampling of about 2,000 people?
Yeah maybe a lot’s changed since but the Argument found pretty similar numbers more recently