In the state of Washington this week, a judge ruled that a utility company could exercise eminent domain to seize property in over 100 lots owned by farmers and homeowners in order to place transmission lines to and from a data center about to be constructed. Not a way to win hearts and minds, fellas. Data centers have advocates of course, but I was just canvassing in rural Minnesota for a few weeks and saw numerous large NO DATA CENTER signs and no YES DATA CENTER.
Data centers are disliked by everyone. It is a power game by tech corporate overlords and "government" entities. The left versus right division is a political Hegelian play to convince people that if their team is on one side , the other side must be wrong, yawn. This strategy is sooo overplayed...
The over reach is as transparent as glass. One day global warming, energy use bad, people are destroying the planet. Next day, data, data and AI - we need ENERGY, even formerly evil nuclear energy, and global warming fairy tales disappear like a puff of smoke.
You are delusional. Nothing is disappearing. It's in fact accelerating at an alarming pace.
Where are youbm getting your information? The last 11 years have been the hottest on the record globally and the hottest ever recorded summer in Europe has already lead to ten thousands of deaths and massive crop failures, but sure everything is fine.
You could show them satellite pictures of seasonal polar ice coverage year by year. God Himself could come down and give him an irrefutable chart. It wouldn't matter because the delusion is load bearing on this person's psyche. If they admitted it was real it would break their foundation and it's a pain most people can't bear.
He did use the word "Hegelian" though, so I'm sure they are pretty smart.
It sounds like you're referring to how these issues are handled in the media. In which case, I see your point. Existential issues have traction in the media, only so long as they coincide with TPTB's agenda. Same as it ever was, unless we stop them.
Trust the GOP to act only when self-preservation is the chief motivator (the other being money). Not that it's gonna help them this November anyway; as if they needed another reason to be despised.
Yes, but we can't take November for granted. We have to work on it, a massive amount of money will be spent over the next two months. When a trillion dollars is at stake, a billion to win a few elections is pocket change.
And depending who you ask, Husted is either just behind or he's dead meat in that race.
Based on that memo, that idea where OpenAI gets bailed out seems to have gone bang. That memo's an order to Altman (and Amodei) that "the next thing out of your filthy sewer had better be good news". I strongly doubt that's a precursor to getting a big cash injection from the taxpayer.
If the worm turns hard enough and Trump loses the Senate, and enough Republicans start looking askance at AI - whoa, mama...
The biggest economic disaster, I think, would be OpenAI getting bailed out. Bailing OpenAI out would be political poison. It would also be a massive red flag to the stock market, and I think it would create a self-fulfilling prophecy effect. By bailing OpenAI out, everyone realises how parlous OpenAI's situation really is, and everyone hits the silk.
You've got a situation where Open AI doesn't get a bailout and dies a natural death, OR a situation where it dies after getting a bailout, which means a heap of taxpayer money disappears down the toilet after it. Both are really bad. Sadly, at least one is probably inevitable. I would choose the first over the second.
Unless AI as an industry can come up with good news OUTCOMES (not stories, actually tangible goodies) quick-smart.
Gary, thanks for such a direct reply. I continue, sometimes unwillingly, to read your posts because you have obviously spent your life in a field that I am just learning about. It is presumptuous of me to argue, but I still stick my oar in because I think AI, even in its present young state, is an extraordinary technology. You keep confusing me, first really antagonistic and then merely irritated about the field.
I share your concern about OpenAI. It's wobbly. Its collapse might be the historical equivalent of Jay Cooke's Northern Pacific in 1872. That was ungood for the country as a whole. The builders of rail infrastructure went under and it was more than a decade before the economy righted itself.
Scary analogy. Chaos. And it's what you have felt would be the outcome for as long as I have read your work. It looks to me like the entire industry is working to isolate OpenAI from the rest of the cash-burners. So, can that outcome be finessed, or is it inevitable?
For some strange reason, Gary Marcus's logo appeared with your response. Pardon me for the mistake. The sentiment still applies. Good outcomes are necessary. They may not be sufficient, thought, to preserve the tech. I fear it will be hamstrung by raw emotion. Whatever happens, we are in for trouble.
I'm not Gary. You replied to me before, I'm just another commenter.
I'll leave Prof. Marcus's opinion to be explained by Prof. Marcus.
FWIW, I don't think it can be properly finessed. An OpenAI calamity would tar everyone with the same brush. The narrative would become "don't be the next OpenAI". Anthropic are going to be really hard-pressed to not be seen as that. The tech giants with moats probably survive.
And the GOP invites the data center and related companies to spend big in elections on the GOP side. Elections in the US have been free until recently but their fairness has been in the dump for quite a while now.
It never really was "The shining city on the hill". But it has become "The burning dumpster fire on the hill"
Reassuring to see that something can shake them ... Yet, it is concerning to see how people can fall to modern Hamelin pipers still in the 21st century ...
Too late. Just as it’s too late for Republicans to move away from Trump, because they’ve already authorized so many deaths on his behalf, so the party can’t divorce itself from big tech, because that’s where its money is coming from and everyone knows it.
There’s now a large cohort of voters who deliberately look at which side is spending how much, and support the side spending less. Decisive? I don’t know. But it does exist.
A hint of what Republicans might do next comes from the moderate Governor of PA. and likely presidential candidate Josh Shapiro, whose position is as twisted as a Philly pretzel. He started as an unabashed AI-data-center recruiter when he courted Amazon's $20B investment in AI and cloud campuses across his state and putting projects in the PA. Permit Fast Track program. Local opposition to those extremist positions caused him to pull back. His current position is reflected in Executive Order 2026-05, issued on August 18, 2026, which pulls all AI data centers out of fast-track permitting, requires consent orders for facilities over 25 MW, forces data centers to be curtailed first in grid emergencies, and gives municipalities an effective veto. Per Shapiro: "If the local community doesn't approve a project, the state won't approve it either" He now calls speculative developers "predatory" and accuses them of "running roughshod" over communities. However, he still wants the AI industry in PA, as he has never endorsed a moratorium, and he split with progressive House Democrats who wanted to repeal the data-center sales-tax exemption outright. For Republicans not wedded to President Trump, these seem like reasonable positions to take. Let’s see what happens.
In my home state of WI, the Republican Tom Tiffany has had some excellent attack ads going after David Crowley for supporting data centers. This despite Tiffany previously being pro-AI (and despite some in the media saying Crowley’s win over Hong was a referendum in favor of data centers). Obvious where the wind is blowing!
Yes, we can't take the election for granted. I've been canvassing, and a lot of people are discouraged and not inclined to vote, but will explain themselves and listen when engaged in conversation.
The Oracle of AGI has done it again! Thank you! Now if only politicians would pay attention.
Notice I wrote "politicians" not "Republicans." That's because the Silicon Valley fascists have also been donating big money (aka bribing) Democrats, especially now that they see the Red party is losing elections. That includes my two senators in CA and our gov., Gavin Newsom, who vetoed a bipartisan bill requiring data center proposals to disclose how much potable water they would take from our limited water supplies in drought-prone CA.
Gil Duran's book "The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy" was released Aug. 18. He exposes dystopian plans and philosophies of key players embedded in our government (i.e. Peter Thiel, David Sacks, JD Vance). Duran is no conspiracy theorist, is politically savvy, and has been writing about "Network States" for several years, but few voters know anything about what these tech bros are advocating and planning.
There they all stood behind Trump at his imauguration. This is their project, it has now displaced what Trump calls "the green new scam" of the Biden administration, which Trump has actively sabotaged.
The die's cast in this, if the bubble implodes before rhe mid-terms, it will be an utter bloodbath.
"Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia." -- new GOP talking point
What do the current batch of MAGA Republicans and AI have in common - would it be hallucinations ?
Hallucinations, greed and pollution
Pride goeth before a fall.
AKA
Karma is a bitch.
Here's the link to the Axios article
https://www.axios.com/2026/08/19/gop-data-center-memo-ai-election
In the state of Washington this week, a judge ruled that a utility company could exercise eminent domain to seize property in over 100 lots owned by farmers and homeowners in order to place transmission lines to and from a data center about to be constructed. Not a way to win hearts and minds, fellas. Data centers have advocates of course, but I was just canvassing in rural Minnesota for a few weeks and saw numerous large NO DATA CENTER signs and no YES DATA CENTER.
Data centers are disliked by everyone. It is a power game by tech corporate overlords and "government" entities. The left versus right division is a political Hegelian play to convince people that if their team is on one side , the other side must be wrong, yawn. This strategy is sooo overplayed...
The over reach is as transparent as glass. One day global warming, energy use bad, people are destroying the planet. Next day, data, data and AI - we need ENERGY, even formerly evil nuclear energy, and global warming fairy tales disappear like a puff of smoke.
You are delusional. Nothing is disappearing. It's in fact accelerating at an alarming pace.
Where are youbm getting your information? The last 11 years have been the hottest on the record globally and the hottest ever recorded summer in Europe has already lead to ten thousands of deaths and massive crop failures, but sure everything is fine.
You could show them satellite pictures of seasonal polar ice coverage year by year. God Himself could come down and give him an irrefutable chart. It wouldn't matter because the delusion is load bearing on this person's psyche. If they admitted it was real it would break their foundation and it's a pain most people can't bear.
He did use the word "Hegelian" though, so I'm sure they are pretty smart.
Maybe they're in some gop-led tiktok alternate reality bubble, but again in there global warming and plebeian deaths were never a topic
It sounds like you're referring to how these issues are handled in the media. In which case, I see your point. Existential issues have traction in the media, only so long as they coincide with TPTB's agenda. Same as it ever was, unless we stop them.
Trust the GOP to act only when self-preservation is the chief motivator (the other being money). Not that it's gonna help them this November anyway; as if they needed another reason to be despised.
Yes, but we can't take November for granted. We have to work on it, a massive amount of money will be spent over the next two months. When a trillion dollars is at stake, a billion to win a few elections is pocket change.
Actually, money is the ultimate form of self preservation.
We'll see.
And depending who you ask, Husted is either just behind or he's dead meat in that race.
Based on that memo, that idea where OpenAI gets bailed out seems to have gone bang. That memo's an order to Altman (and Amodei) that "the next thing out of your filthy sewer had better be good news". I strongly doubt that's a precursor to getting a big cash injection from the taxpayer.
If the worm turns hard enough and Trump loses the Senate, and enough Republicans start looking askance at AI - whoa, mama...
keeping fingers crossed....
Just a question: Are you really praying for an economic disaster. It sounds as though you are.
I'm not praying for any kind of disaster.
The biggest economic disaster, I think, would be OpenAI getting bailed out. Bailing OpenAI out would be political poison. It would also be a massive red flag to the stock market, and I think it would create a self-fulfilling prophecy effect. By bailing OpenAI out, everyone realises how parlous OpenAI's situation really is, and everyone hits the silk.
You've got a situation where Open AI doesn't get a bailout and dies a natural death, OR a situation where it dies after getting a bailout, which means a heap of taxpayer money disappears down the toilet after it. Both are really bad. Sadly, at least one is probably inevitable. I would choose the first over the second.
Unless AI as an industry can come up with good news OUTCOMES (not stories, actually tangible goodies) quick-smart.
Gary, thanks for such a direct reply. I continue, sometimes unwillingly, to read your posts because you have obviously spent your life in a field that I am just learning about. It is presumptuous of me to argue, but I still stick my oar in because I think AI, even in its present young state, is an extraordinary technology. You keep confusing me, first really antagonistic and then merely irritated about the field.
I share your concern about OpenAI. It's wobbly. Its collapse might be the historical equivalent of Jay Cooke's Northern Pacific in 1872. That was ungood for the country as a whole. The builders of rail infrastructure went under and it was more than a decade before the economy righted itself.
Scary analogy. Chaos. And it's what you have felt would be the outcome for as long as I have read your work. It looks to me like the entire industry is working to isolate OpenAI from the rest of the cash-burners. So, can that outcome be finessed, or is it inevitable?
For some strange reason, Gary Marcus's logo appeared with your response. Pardon me for the mistake. The sentiment still applies. Good outcomes are necessary. They may not be sufficient, thought, to preserve the tech. I fear it will be hamstrung by raw emotion. Whatever happens, we are in for trouble.
I'm not Gary. You replied to me before, I'm just another commenter.
I'll leave Prof. Marcus's opinion to be explained by Prof. Marcus.
FWIW, I don't think it can be properly finessed. An OpenAI calamity would tar everyone with the same brush. The narrative would become "don't be the next OpenAI". Anthropic are going to be really hard-pressed to not be seen as that. The tech giants with moats probably survive.
I ask that question, not just for myself, but for everybody who's into this subject, pro or con.
And the GOP invites the data center and related companies to spend big in elections on the GOP side. Elections in the US have been free until recently but their fairness has been in the dump for quite a while now.
It never really was "The shining city on the hill". But it has become "The burning dumpster fire on the hill"
Reassuring to see that something can shake them ... Yet, it is concerning to see how people can fall to modern Hamelin pipers still in the 21st century ...
For Trump to reverse course would require a good deal of Harping on this issue. Until then, he might not even hear about it.
Too late. Just as it’s too late for Republicans to move away from Trump, because they’ve already authorized so many deaths on his behalf, so the party can’t divorce itself from big tech, because that’s where its money is coming from and everyone knows it.
There’s now a large cohort of voters who deliberately look at which side is spending how much, and support the side spending less. Decisive? I don’t know. But it does exist.
A hint of what Republicans might do next comes from the moderate Governor of PA. and likely presidential candidate Josh Shapiro, whose position is as twisted as a Philly pretzel. He started as an unabashed AI-data-center recruiter when he courted Amazon's $20B investment in AI and cloud campuses across his state and putting projects in the PA. Permit Fast Track program. Local opposition to those extremist positions caused him to pull back. His current position is reflected in Executive Order 2026-05, issued on August 18, 2026, which pulls all AI data centers out of fast-track permitting, requires consent orders for facilities over 25 MW, forces data centers to be curtailed first in grid emergencies, and gives municipalities an effective veto. Per Shapiro: "If the local community doesn't approve a project, the state won't approve it either" He now calls speculative developers "predatory" and accuses them of "running roughshod" over communities. However, he still wants the AI industry in PA, as he has never endorsed a moratorium, and he split with progressive House Democrats who wanted to repeal the data-center sales-tax exemption outright. For Republicans not wedded to President Trump, these seem like reasonable positions to take. Let’s see what happens.
Are we sure that Trump wouldn’t instead say, “Covfefe chatbot, we hardly knew ye”?
In my home state of WI, the Republican Tom Tiffany has had some excellent attack ads going after David Crowley for supporting data centers. This despite Tiffany previously being pro-AI (and despite some in the media saying Crowley’s win over Hong was a referendum in favor of data centers). Obvious where the wind is blowing!
Yes, we can't take the election for granted. I've been canvassing, and a lot of people are discouraged and not inclined to vote, but will explain themselves and listen when engaged in conversation.
The Oracle of AGI has done it again! Thank you! Now if only politicians would pay attention.
Notice I wrote "politicians" not "Republicans." That's because the Silicon Valley fascists have also been donating big money (aka bribing) Democrats, especially now that they see the Red party is losing elections. That includes my two senators in CA and our gov., Gavin Newsom, who vetoed a bipartisan bill requiring data center proposals to disclose how much potable water they would take from our limited water supplies in drought-prone CA.
Gil Duran's book "The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy" was released Aug. 18. He exposes dystopian plans and philosophies of key players embedded in our government (i.e. Peter Thiel, David Sacks, JD Vance). Duran is no conspiracy theorist, is politically savvy, and has been writing about "Network States" for several years, but few voters know anything about what these tech bros are advocating and planning.
There they all stood behind Trump at his imauguration. This is their project, it has now displaced what Trump calls "the green new scam" of the Biden administration, which Trump has actively sabotaged.
The die's cast in this, if the bubble implodes before rhe mid-terms, it will be an utter bloodbath.