The AI Backlash Could Get Very Ugly
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/05/ai-backlash-data-centers-political-violence/687151/?taid=6a067e2d2096e10001ccfa32
The AI Backlash Could Get Very Ugly
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/05/ai-backlash-data-centers-political-violence/687151/?taid=6a067e2d2096e10001ccfa32
49 Comments
“Imagine what happens if jobs actually start disappearing” I…. Don’t have to imagine.
Trade offer:
I get to steal all your electricity and drinking water.
You get to lose your job to AI.
It needs to
I’m just waiting for the AI bubble to burst so I can buy RAM and SSDs again without taking out a second mortgage.
Yeah, most people don’t wanna sell out the entire history of humanity to SmarterChild Deluxe.
An AI backlash would not be ugly. It would be warranted.
Crush the clunkers
“Why is everyone so mad at me? I’m only trying to take everyone’s jobs, water, and electricity!”
Could?
This is why education is important. If these tech bros took humanities courses they’d know all about the kind of rioting, sabotage, and murder that happened during the Luddite uprisings and by workers hellbent on unions and forty hour work weeks.
They think they are untouchable. That will be an interesting lesson for them to learn
Whatever candidate runs on “we’re unplugging all of these from the grid and seizing assets from their owners” would sweep the floor
People need to take a stand. But sadly those we elect don’t care. They are in the pockets of the billionaire data assholes
It must. It is the only way they will get the message. All the politicians are bought up by these bastards. They are not gonna save us.
No shit.
People didn’t ask for these data centres. It just seemed that due process went out the window and local voices are being ignored.
When elected officials don’t listen to the people, shit gets out of hand as people feel that their wallet is worth more than their vote.
As if the AI push hasn’t been hideous
I noticed that Tucker Carlson is all over it attacking AI. He obviously sees it as a populist issue and I think he’s right. I doubt the Democrats will be effective in opposing it but maybe they’ll surprise me.
AI is taking all the jobs, makes lots of polutions, takes all our water and electricity. Makes Tech bro oligarchs into trillionairs. Taking all the human creativity away, swarming us with bots, and slopping our social media so we arent talking to humans anymore.
Whats not to love? I for one love it that AI is being forced into everything ruining our technology. I love that copilot puts their shitty icon on top of my excel canvas so I cant see my work. I love that copilot has made my system less reliable and is constantly crashing. I love that microslop feels entitled to use my data to spy on me and weponize it against me. I love that all tech companies do this, google, facebook, redit, etc etc etc so everything is worse, more expensive and full of slop ads.
All while people like elon musk and sam altman gloat about how rich they are, how we are powerless to stop it.
Why are the peasants complaining vibes.
They are creating poor hungry people with nothing to lose. Historically, that does not end well.
[paywall bypass archive link](https://archive.ph/8PRnh)
All our lives, we were told to go to college so we can get good jobs and not have to flip burgers for the rest of our lives. That work would set us free. That we were worth less than dirt if we were unemployed.
Now the billionaires are telling that exact same population that their jobs are being taken by a bunch of bots that came out of nowhere and were never asked for, and saying we should be happy about it because “technology progress good”. Oh, and your electric bills will be 12 times higher and your water will be acid, but we don’t give a shit. Enjoy your irradiated gardens.
Add in the war-fueled gas inflation, the crazy high grocery prices, basic healthcare being through the roof, schools and universities shutting down due to funding being pulled, the absolute torment nexus that is trying to get *any* job right now…..something’s gotta give sooner or later. There is only so much you can wave your dick around in front of a society who was raised on personal independence.
I won’t say America’s ripe for a revolution because we do kind of have several systems working against us at the moment, but there’s just no way this will continue indefinitely without something changing. They literally can’t stay billionaires if there’s nobody on the planet left alive or employed to steal from in the next ten years.
Highly likely outcome: Nothing will happen to the tech CEOs. All losses will be bailed out by the government, using taxpayers money
Who’s gonna by your shitty a.i. product if no one has a job to buy it? Especially those who lost there job needlessly because of a.i. Do you really think those people who lost there job would buy something using a.i. after that?
We haven’t had something this disruptive to the economy since probably the industrail revolution. The internet didn’t disrupt things this much because it was a service that was sold as a net benefit to people and no one really thought a computer at their desk was going to take their job.
The industrial revolution was very ugly (ask the actual Luddites) and they had much less wherewithal and rights than we do now.
at least add paywall to the subject
Doubt it. There will always be luddites and people using flip phones but they were never numerous enough to slow things down meaningfully.
Backlash coming against water, land, and electricity use I can absolutely see but that’s its own thing all together.
But anything truly impactful as a popular movement against AI as a whole to slow it down? Not likely.
History is full of examples of what happens when you push people to their breaking point and they have nothing left to lose.
Very ugly *for whom,* though?
Ugly for the masses? The backlash won’t be. Ugly for the rich who’re stuck in their bubble and pushing for data centers larger than fucking Manhattan in Utah? Yeah, probably. These are the kinds of detachments from reality and division between classes that lead to situations like the French Revolution and much less bloody and less famous upheavals of society.
It’s realistic to think that when these data centers start getting built, people are gonna be sabotaging the equipment, burning tractors to the ground, that sorta thing. It’s gonna get expensive just to insure these projects that nobody wants.
Yes this is what happens when people know the government is no longer working in their best interests. They have deferred to the corporations over us. There is no trust at all. So slow down with the AI. Be transparent and not so Bond villain. Quit shoving things down people’s throats. Maybe then you can build some more data centers
I count on it.
I had a guy solicit my business today to put shitty AI ads in a magazine. For $400 per year, I could have my ad be shown to 10s of people. Worst part is, this magazine is nothing BUT ads. Like 60-80 pages of ads. So my “custom” AI ad would be thrown in with all the other AI ads…for $400 per year. I fucking hate AI and I told him how much I hate it.
Not ugly enough, not early enough.
While yes AI does have some benefits. But are those benefits worth it when they fuck over a lot of people in the long run ?
Just **pop** the bubble already so PC parts don’t cost bajillion dollars.
AI is a trillion dollar boondoggle.
Good?
honestly surprised it’s not uglier already
The thing is, ai can’t do any job that actually requires anything to happen.
Reap what you sow.
Teens are using it as a slur at school. So there’s that at least.
Edit: “shut up you AI” “closes chrome book, fuck you I’m not AI” paraphrasing a couple convos from this weeks delightful lessons.
It’s not about your jobs. They don’t care about you or a democracy because they have all the wealth. They don’t need you for anything. You guys are not grasping the situation. We are at least 40 Trillion in debt and pay close to 1 trillion each year in taxes that only goes towards paying down the interest alone on that 40+ trillion. There is no way out. The petrodollar is teetering on collapse which is why we took Venezuela and foolishly went after Iran.
Now here’s the point: With all that burden the markets sunk 30 to 40% of capital into AI. If it doesn’t pay off or if there’s any downturn the economy crashes worse than the great depression. Example; when Chinese start up DeepSeek AI released their free version 1 Trillion was wiped from the US Stock Exchange overnight.
This is why all the bought-and-paid-for city councils across America are approving data centers despite constituents protests. Their marching orders come from the real owners. We’re in a race against China. And it’s far more critical than anyone thinks. China is sick and tired of the United States meddling in its affairs that they are racing to provide cheaper or even free AI as an alternative to hobble us without firing a shot. And as soon as it’s revealed (if it works) that the majority of businesses are using and getting by just fine on this cheaper or free AI the market collapses and the Yuan will be the world currency. You’re trying to protect your jobs and society – the 1% are in an existential crisis to protect their wealth worldwide. You come last.
Well the backlash has begun! And the stuff that power companies are pulling, like they just did in Tahoe, isn’t going to make it any better.
They haven’t even started the enshittification period for the people that use it every day. It’s more or less free at the moment. I’m interested to see if the bubble bursts before they start with monthly access fees for everyone.
“Imagine what happens if jobs actually start disappearing.”
No need for imagination over here, it’s already happening in my industry.
FYI you can read the Atlantic for free if your public library offers Flipster with your free membership.
It’s the one thing that seems to have united republicans and democrats. No one wants these in their backyards. No one.
I can’t use plastic bags anymore but you get Data Centers?
Oh no!
Anyway…
Good. Let’s make it incredibly ugly for these scam artists.