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In this follow-up to my previous article “The Political Hot Potato: AI Data Centers,” this hot potato is burning hotter than ever. Around the country, citizens are rising up and defeating AI data center proposals at the local level. According to a recent Gallup poll 70% of Americans oppose the construction of an AI data center in their local area.[1] Big Tech and its supporters, those who receive donations or stand to profit from these projects, are scrambling.
The race is on. The greedy tech oligarchs are in it to win it and using various strategies, but the citizens of the United States are not going to roll over. We are in the battle for the long haul. Citizens defeat an AI data center proposal in one county and immediately a new data center proposal pops up in the county next door. We are playing whack a mole.
Elon Musk has proposed placing AI data centers in orbit, powered by abundant solar energy to help address terrestrial power constraints and water consumption issues. [2] [3]Another emerging strategy involves small, modular data center nodes installed on or near homes and in neighborhoods to ease grid strain.[4] The deep state government and tech oligarchs want their surveillance centers installed, and they will do whatever it takes. The battle is multifaceted, playing out at the city, county, state, and federal levels.
Opposition is so widespread that at the federal level, internal U.S. government documents now label anti-data center movements and criticism of AI as potential “anti-technology extremism” worthy of surveillance.
This shift comes primarily from federal agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and regional fusion centers that coordinate with state and local law enforcement. More than 1,000 pages of internal reports obtained via FOIA and reviewed by WIRED show this national approach tying growing public backlash into broader domestic terrorism monitoring.
As resistance has spread to hundreds of community groups across 42 states, peaceful actions such as town hall complaints about noise, water usage, and power demands are being flagged in intelligence bulletins. Even non-violent activities like photographing proposed sites or sharing videos online have drawn attention as possible precursors to threats.
Writing this commentary could put me on the list. Critics warn that this broad and vague label risks chilling consequences for ordinary citizens exercising their First Amendment rights, even though actual violence remains extremely rare. [5]
For example, at a city council meeting in Port Washington, Wisconsin, police forcibly removed and arrested Christine Le Jeune and two other women after she continued speaking out against a proposed data center project during public comment.[6] Similar incidents of residents being escorted or removed by police have occurred in multiple states including New Jersey, Illinois, and Oklahoma during heated town hall discussions. [7]
In short, the more popular and effective grassroots resistance becomes, the more federal surveillance resources are being directed to monitor it. Ironically, they are using the very AI data centers that locals oppose to monitor/surveil and store the resistance data.
According to Larry Ellison of Oracle, the real purpose of these huge AI data centers is mass surveillance of every American. They plan to collect video from millions of cameras, such as police body cams, car dashcams, flock cameras, doorbells, and security cameras, and use AI to watch everything in real time. This creates an Orwellian system where people are constantly watched. Cameras, Cameras Everywhere – See Every Move You Make – Welcome
“Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on,” – Larry Ellison, Executive Chairman and CTO of Oracle. September 2024
“The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely. … There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment.” — George Orwell, 1984
“Always eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed—no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull.” — George Orwell, 1984
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