Opposition to data center construction is rising sharply, survey says

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West Philly resident Sharmin Hossain worries about the rising proliferation of artificial intelligence, powered by new data centers.

“For me and my friends, we’re scared of AI,” she said. “We’re scared of the way it’s being pushed into every single piece of technology that we own. We hate the way that ChatGPT is being used, and we also hate the fact that it is a technology that is not being used for the better.”

The 33-year-old attended a rally Thursday outside of U.S. Sen. John Fetterman’s office in Philadelphia’s Old City neighborhood to encourage him to do more to regulate the industry and refuse campaign contributions from Big Tech companies. It was part of a nationwide effort to encourage elected officials to do more to regulate the rapidly expanding construction of new data centers necessary to power artificial intelligence.

Sen. Fetterman has called the opposition to data centers “lunacy.”

Hossain said she’s worried about the impact of the power-hungry data centers on climate change, the large water usage at the facilities, and the rising cost of electricity that is due in part to the increase in data centers. She also opposes how the data centers enable greater surveillance, including with the proliferation of Flock cameras.

“All of these companies are unaccountable tech companies that are expanding their computing services to expand their surveillance,” Hossain said.

Opposition to new data center construction has jumped significantly among both Democrats and Republicans, according to a recent survey by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Policy Center.

The survey shows a 12-point jump in opposition in just four months, comparing two exact surveys conducted in the late winter and summer of this year. The earlier poll that surveyed U.S. adult citizens in February and March showed 49% opposed new data centers.

In the most recent poll that surveyed 1,320 U.S. adult citizens from June 16 to July 19, however, researchers found that 61% of participants opposed building new data centers, a significant rise in just four months. But when it comes to opinions of artificial intelligence, those numbers have remained stable with 39% of those surveyed expecting a negative impact from AI’s expansion, while 18% predicted positive outcomes. The vast majority, 68%, said “too little” has been done to regulate AI.

Widespread opposition to data centers

Penn professor Matt Levendusky, who is chair of the Institutions of Democracy at the Annenberg Public Policy Center, said the opposition to new data centers is widespread.

“We find it in places where there is already organized opposition to data centers, [and] where there is not,” Levendusky said. “We find it among Democrats, Republicans, independents. We find it among people who don’t use AI at all, people who just use it a little bit, and people who use it quite a bit.”

Levendusky said in the current political atmosphere, where so many issues are polarized between the left and right, the issue surrounding data centers has become a unifying force.

“It’s almost the antithesis of a partisan issue, which is super rare these days,” Levendusky said. “So there aren’t very many issues where you could find Bernie Sanders and Ron DeSantis on the same side of an issue, but this is one of them.”

Levendusky said the sharp jump in opposition just this year could be attributed to greater press coverage of the issue and the impact data centers have on increasing electricity bills.

Maria Serna, a native of Colombia who lives in Northeast Philadelphia, pointed to her rising electricity bills when it comes to her opposition to data centers.

“How are you gonna decide between paying your bills or putting your food on the table,” she said. “That’s the big decision, not just me, too many families, my neighbors, my friends. I know a lot of people [making] this kind of decision right now.”

Like Hossain, she is worried about the impact of surveillance.

“They are taking information and sharing it … with the Flock cameras,” Serna said.

Neither Serna nor Hossain live near a proposed data center, but both sympathize with those who do and are fighting them on a local level.

Levendusky said the research shows the sharp increase in resistance to data centers is not NIMBYism — as in “not in my backyard” — because those living near and far from proposed sites oppose them equally. The research also shows younger adults like Hossain are more likely to oppose data centers than older adults.

“I think one interesting thing about the data center story is that if you think about other types of AI or other technologies, you hear people on both sides of the issue,” Levendusky said. “So whether that’s, say, driverless cars, there are people who are opposed to them, but people who also support them, right? There aren’t really a lot of people who are advocates for data centers beyond the AI companies themselves.”

Given the fears around and opposition to AI, Levendusky said the messaging from data center developers that we all use AI and that we need data centers to power that usage “is probably not a terribly compelling argument.”