Green: Data center backlash is real, and AI advocates should pay attention

As opposition to data centers grows across the United States, some political leaders and advocates of AI are blaming China for fueling public backlash. 

University of Michigan School of Information assistant professor Ben Green, an expert on the social and political impacts of technology, says the opposition to date centers is real and organic. 

“Anyone who doubts it should just show up to any of the communities where people are actually fighting data centers,” Green says. “Show up to a town hall, show up to a city council meeting, and you will just very clearly see that these are people who live in this community are clearly very upset about this.”

The backlash, he says, reflects a broader public anxiety about AI, including concerns about job displacement, environmental costs and the limited benefits data centers sometimes bring to local communities. 

“There’s a broader sense of class politics in this,” he says. “These facilities bring really close to zero benefits to [the] community, are extracting natural resources, and all of the benefit here is just going to these tech companies and billionaires.”

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Read “From the Trump administration to Kevin O’Leary, there’s a new narrative that China is to blame for plummeting data center popularity” on Fortune. 

Learn more about Ben Green’s research by visiting his UMSI faculty profile.