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This week, leaders from major tech companies gathered in North Carolina to discuss artificial intelligence—the technology behind tools like ChatGPT. Inside the meeting, they celebrated AI's potential and insisted the world needs more data centers (massive facilities that power AI systems). Sam Altman, who runs OpenAI, called AI "incredible magic" and said building more infrastructure was essential. But just outside the building, hundreds of protesters had a very different message. They're angry about data centers polluting their water and air, and they're skeptical of promises that these facilities will create lasting jobs.
The gap between what's happening inside and outside that meeting reflects a real problem for the tech industry. When data centers are built in communities, they often bring temporary construction jobs—but not the permanent employment that developers initially promised. Meanwhile, these massive facilities use enormous amounts of water and electricity, raising concerns about environmental damage. Across America, protests against data centers are becoming common: activists organized 142 demonstrations against them across 42 states in just July alone. A recent poll shows that two-thirds of Americans don't want a data center built near their homes, and the issue has become important enough that politicians from both parties are taking stricter stances. In North Carolina alone, dozens of local governments have already blocked or restricted new data center projects.