r/technology • u/Malor777 • 6d ago
Artificial Intelligence ‘Clearly, people hate data centers’: Sam Altman admits Americans hate what he’s wrought as his own data centers head quits
https://fortune.com/2026/08/27/sam-altman-openai-data-center-backlash3.0k
u/Ibra_63 6d ago edited 5d ago
-Pressure on local water ressources -Significant increase in electricity bills -Noise pollution -Decrease in property values -No significant local job creations
I wonder why people hate data centers, it is a mystery
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u/Everlast17 5d ago edited 5d ago
Don’t forget them claiming edit: (fixed spelling) eminent domain to force you to sell your land and force them to be built.
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u/FlowInternational996 5d ago
You both forgot the most important part is that no one fucking asked for it.
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u/Rivent 5d ago
In some cases not only did people not ask for it, they voted the installations of data centers in their communities down, and these fucking companies just… started building them anyway.
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u/ClashM 5d ago
In response to the public outcry, the Trump EPA has been changing the rules so they no longer have to get public input, don't have to disclose their pollution, and can start building before the permits are approved.
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u/Carrera_996 5d ago
Hi. I work in IT. Leadership of every businesses big enough to need their own server demanded it. They don't like paying guys like me to show up and fix their shit. They prefer the offshore guy that costs 20٪ what I do.
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u/timeshifter_ 5d ago
Data centers for the purpose of hosting infrastructure are one thing. These are for the purpose of generating slop. They offer net negative value both to the areas they get built, and society as a whole.
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u/Oldzeebra 5d ago
But did you think of all the value it brings shareholders? Why won't anyone think of the shareholders!
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u/timeshifter_ 5d ago
I think of the shareholders quite often. I think about how few lean cuts there probably are...
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u/SeveralPhysics9362 5d ago
How is this even legal? In Europe you can only do that for public things like roads or a military base or something. Not for a private company to build on.
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u/--sheogorath-- 5d ago
Well you see the US government absolutely hates americans
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u/BananaNutJob 5d ago
The US is really deep in some nasty shit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture
In politics, regulatory capture (also called agency capture) is a form of corruption of authority that occurs when a political entity, policymaker, or regulator is co-opted to serve the commercial, ideological, or political interests of a minor constituency, such as a particular geographic area, industry, profession, or ideological group.[1][2]
When regulatory capture occurs, a special interest is prioritized over the general interests of the public, leading to a net loss for society. The theory of client politics is related to that of rent-seeking and political failure; client politics "occurs when most or all of the benefits of a program go to some single, reasonably small interest (e.g., industry, profession, or locality) but most or all of the costs will be borne by a large number of people (for example, all taxpayers)".[3]
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u/Phugasity 5d ago
It's a bit tautological in that Data Centers themselves aren't using eminent domain, but Utilities to power them are which is having very real and consequential negative impacts on residential communities.
Those utility companies are public and private but both types can claim it's in the public interest. The frustrating thing is intent seems to get adjudicated quite subjectively. Environmental justice has not made enough progress here to grow roots and has actively been gutted by our current administration.
I personally am not against data centers because at some point that's as regressive as saying you're against cloud storage or servers. That said, the display of reasonable regulation for their location and build out is deplorable... so I guess I'm against data centers.
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u/ThisSiteSucks8485 5d ago
RAM price increasing 5x
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u/thaeggan 5d ago
Storage and anything that has ram on it too, sadly. With no real end in sight, only speculation and hoping AI collapses.
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u/caintowers 5d ago edited 5d ago
I just want to replace the desktop I built in 2018. It was fantastic then, but it just doesn't perform as well now and there's no way I can afford to build what I do need. How many people and small businesses are in the same boat?
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u/madhattr999 5d ago
I got so lucky upgrading my PC a year ago or so. The store said RAM prices doubled a few days after I was quoted a price. And since then, everything else has jumped up in price too.
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u/exoriparian 5d ago
Same. It felt frivolous at the time because my desktop from 2016 was still fine, but now I have something that should last me a decade at least.
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u/maowai 5d ago
-All to the serve as the brain for something that takes jobs, devalues human creativity, and makes the internet a worse place.
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u/Ilddit 5d ago
While stealing the works and data of all us poors to make it work in the first place.
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u/Ok_Teacher6490 5d ago
How the public doesn't see AI for the mass theft that it is I'll never know.
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u/SyleSpawn 5d ago
We see it, we just collectively go "not much we can do about it". You're writing this comment, what did you do?
One person steal one book from a library, they get arrested and can go to jail.
One person harvest tens of thousands of books, repackage it differently and sell it in mass; you're seen as the messiah of modern age.
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u/SpecificFail 5d ago
But we can also replace all the drivers in the area with low latency AI drivers, sell checkout-less systems to stores, make use of drone surveillance and delivery more readily, rent AI robotic workers to stockrooms, factories and restaurants, and finally have fully controlled cloud based phones and computers. Just think, you won't be able to go anywhere, buy anything, do anything, or even communicate with others without a subscription or paying entirely reasonable usage fee.
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u/realboabab 5d ago
well shit, when you put it that way... they're kinda fucked if they don't come out with some robots to consume all those goods and services soon!
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u/BrandNewDinosaur 5d ago
We don’t just hate them. We revile them. What they are, what they do, what they take, what they represent.
They are the symbol of the oppression that humans have been suffering under for millennia crystallized and distilled. They are monuments built to a system that crushes human hopes, prospects and freedom. Data centres represent the people who want to be our new overlords.
How about NO.
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u/Brilliant-Giraffe983 5d ago
38 states offer tax incentives for data centers, so all those resources they consume, making your life harder and more expensive? They're paying for them with your tax dollars.
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u/Mr_Quackums 5d ago
The thing is, we have been making dats centers for a long time and we know how to do them correctly. The issue is these are built in a month with no oversight.
We can make them quiet, we can make them generate their own electricity if we wanted to, once we do that then property values and no job creation wouldn't be a problem.
Just like with AI itself; the problem is not the existence of data centers, the problem is how they are being shoved down our throats.
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u/black_metronome 6d ago
We hate you too, Sam.
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u/KidEliteTrader 5d ago
Step 1. Build something people hate
Step 2. Wait why does everyone hate me?
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u/b_a_t_m_4_n 6d ago
People hate having vast constructions forced upon them and the concomitant environmental destruction, noise pollution, high electricity prices and drying up of their water sources for zero benefit. In other words they hate being bent over and fucked dry without their consent.
Loius Rossman describes Altman and his ilk as having a rapist mentality and he's pretty much bang on on that note. They are convinced that "If you give it to them hard enough they'll discover they enjoy it."
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u/darkomyfriend 6d ago
Don’t forget about all of the surveillance applications, the egregious data collection, and all of the opportunities to undercut wages/labor. Corey Doctorow has been hitting this beat really well lately. There are nurse staffing agencies that tailor their offers to prospective hires by using their financial data to get an idea as to how desperate they may be for work.
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u/Modem_Sound_67 6d ago
People hate having vast constructions forced upon them and the concomitant environmental destruction, noise pollution, high electricity prices and drying up of their water sources for zero benefit. In other words they hate being bent over and fucked dry without their consent.
Whoda thunk it, right?
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u/Rashpukin 6d ago
All in the name of progress and convenience!!
The fact is we are making the rich richer and thanking them for letting us do it. It’s absurd.
It’s time to put things back into perspective.10
u/RedditTechAnon 5d ago
We're going to be in this funhouse mirror for decades. The century of American humiliation shows little sign of ending.
The question of "How could this possibly get worse?" is answered by the rising of the sun.
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u/HighKing_of_Festivus 6d ago
People would probably put up with them if there were any benefits. Instead these things are purely parasitic for the local communities
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u/jenny_905 5d ago
And potentially massively destructive to your wider community.
Altman's industry has imperiled the financial security of millions and I think at some level people are worried and angry that it has been allowed to happen.
When Altman finally gets called out the fallout will hurt a very wide group of people, people far from any datacentres.
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u/BioshockEnthusiast 5d ago
The AI industry has imperiled the financial security of every American with a net worth under 10 million.
People really do not understand the severity of the hardware crisis and how devastating these price increases are going to be over the next few years. Sure, you read about angry gamers now, just wait until every cloud service that 90% of businesses rely on jack prices into the stratosphere to keep up with maintaining and replacing their own servers. Just wait until these small fish have to replace their local infrastructure. Those businesses are gonna pass that cost to their consumers and yet another bite will be taken out of the sliver of pie left for laborers.
Once people realize that their local mechanics (cloud based scheduling and inventory systems), grocers (camera NVRs, inventory systems, etc), entertainment venues (free wifi anyone?), hotels and everything else are raising prices to cover AI companies propping up cardboard cutouts of "friends" for our 10 year old kids to interact with, I hope something breaks and I hope I finally get to see the anger of a wronged people do something meaningful for once in my life.
They are bringing so much pain on all of us that can't be avoided at this phase of the game. My greatest wish is that we collectively recognize who that anger needs to be aimed at: the crop of tech bro CEOs hell bent on wrecking shit for the average citizen and the current administration who gave them carte blanche to do so without near term repercussions.
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u/nullfacade 5d ago
Not only are there nigh zero benefits, they are also straight-up lying about what these datacenters will be used for. ChatGPT is the friendly consumer-facing chatbot people associate with AI, but that is a tiny fraction of intended the use of these systems. They are being fully integrated into our military and governments (local and federal). They are being built to spy on our every move and thought. They are being built to power a robotic military apparatus that removes humans from decision making.
They expect us to sit by and watch as they erect a Skynet and Big Brother more powerful, draconian, and crushing than Orwell could have ever imagined.
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u/sump_daddy 5d ago
> People hate having vast constructions forced upon them and the concomitant environmental destruction, noise pollution, high electricity prices and drying up of their water sources for zero benefit. In other words they hate being bent over and fucked dry without their consent.
"no no, it's simply the data centers they don't like"
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u/EffectiveEconomics 5d ago
This is a great Insight. We’ve taken some of the most capable problems, solving individuals, who are likely on part of the spectrum who exemplify a serious and studied focus on solving particular problems while delivering a significant economic benefit.
The problems of Silicon Valley are not the problems of society. Our major fault here is that we’ve allowed these individuals and the money behind them to become some of the primary driving forces for our entire civilization.
Humans are rapacious consumers of the environment, but these forces of efficiency are strip mining what’s left of the best aspects of our Society and that consumptive behaviour is now turned itself on the remaining available economic elbowroom, which is people, their lives, and their communities.
So if anyone’s ever wondered what it looks like from the perspective of a schooled ecologist or biologist, looking at the destruction of the environment, this is what that looks like when it’s turned against people in their communities.
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u/JacuulTheSecond 5d ago
Altman and his ilk as having a rapist mentality
Almost like he has a rape lawsuit against him
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u/StovardBule 5d ago
Loius Rossman describes Altman and his ilk as having a rapist mentality and he's pretty much bang on on that note.
The tech guys who make every decision on the internet “Do you want to agree to whatever we want, Yes/Ask again later”.
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u/Intelligent_Hair3109 5d ago
No Altman we hate you, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and all your cohorts. Prevaricating pirates you all are
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u/MrArmageddon12 5d ago
They are truly evil people. Wish the absolute worst for all of them.
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u/Mell0wYell0ws 5d ago
I can't say what I want to happen or reddit will ban me. I stated a Italian name & got a warning, obviously I want these nice gentlemen to play videogames in hades.
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u/_Fred_Austere_ 5d ago
Prevaricate and its synonyms lie and equivocate all refer to playing fast and loose with the truth.
Good word, thx.
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u/rnick467 5d ago
The problem is, these entitled billionaires still don't get it.
People don't hate data centers. We all want our internet.
What we hate is that the data centers are bribing our elected officials to be prioritized over the citizens. They are given tax breaks, overwhelm the electrical grid, destroy drinkable water, and are not willing to even TRY to overcome these issues.
Solve all of the problems that cause damage to the population, and no one would fucking care.
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u/bluewall220 5d ago
No to mention the threat of even more wealth inequality that will come from AI. None of these pricks have talked about a plan to help anyone but themselves
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u/justinmtartick 5d ago
Option A) the elite truly are so out of touch with humanity and the public’s perspective on what they want out of life that they’re just that dumb.
Option B) it actually is malevolence. All of it.
I go between both of those multiple times a day. Never know which one it is.
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u/SolarNachoes 5d ago
They are driven by fear and self interest. Sam is not an altruist. He’ll turn into Thiel as soon as OpenAI goes public.
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u/TheNewYellowZealot 5d ago edited 5d ago
Hanlons razor.
It doesn’t take smarts to be a billionaire. It takes luck. Being in the right place at the right time. Unfortunately all these lucky bastards confuse that luck for knowledge, and try and hold it over the populace and use it to squash vox populi.
While I’m sure some of these billionaires may be at least intelligent, if they were as intelligent as they thought they’d know the voice of the many overrides the voice of the few in most cases.
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u/RiveryJerald 5d ago edited 4d ago
The data center issue is a perfect encapsulation of how rapacious American capitalism has become. (It always was to a degree, but now it's even more extreme and being shoved in everyone's faces.)
Some rich asshole can barnstorm through your community, jizzing his capital all over the place for his own benefit. He doesn't live there; he has no intention of ever living there. He has no other stake in the community, beyond his private property that he unceremoniously splooged onto it.
He just needs to use this land and its resources, for his own purposes and not the community's; something which local officials will bend over backwards to comply with. The local community's needs, wants, and concerns are never considered. It just happens without their consent, because a capitalist who has more money (power) than them has decided what will happen to their community. He's more important than them because he has more money; full stop. The fact that he has not, does not, and will not live there doesn't fucking matter at all.
Capitalism is just feudalism with a fresh new varnish. At least the feudal lords ostensibly lived in and presided over their fiefdoms. These jackasses don't even do that because they learned it can be quite easy to face the consequences of their own actions if they did.
Edit: Oh noooooooooooo, the bootlicking privated profiles have arrived in the responses. I'm totally sure their takes are sensible, measured, and not just contrarian ragebait, solely meant to stir the pot, all while they suck that flaccid corporate cock. And remember folks, there's nothing wrong with intimate and loving cock-sucking by any human being with another human being, no matter the gender identity of either party. That's just natural human sensuality. But sucking a corporate cock might as well be deep throating a cow turd. The cow doesn't care that you're doing it. Same as any corpo. Listen to Johnny Silverhand, y'all.
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u/SupportCa2A 5d ago
It's a new philosophy that has taken Silicone Valleys by storm, it's called accelerationism and they are trying really hard to push everything to the extreme as fast as possible, disregard all regulations, ignore environmental and human rights violation, and destroy democracy replacing the United States with a system of fascist network states with a CEO king.
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u/OGBeege 6d ago edited 5d ago
Clearly they hate them all: Altman, Skum, Metaberg, brin, Palantir’s Mad Scientist and they should continue busting their humps to stop their evil doings
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u/Cumdrop_WhoreStrife 5d ago
Palantir guy is the worst, he pissess me off so much
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u/24_August_1814 5d ago
Thiel is such a ghoul. I honestly can't think of a better word to describe him
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u/UpstairsArmadillo454 6d ago
Build better tech that doesn’t need water cooling- you’ve got a few billion to solve the problem idiot
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u/Syndiotactics 6d ago
Closed loop water cooling systems don’t consume water much at all, but American companies insist on using open loop systems, as they are cheaper.
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u/Pussy4LunchDick4Dins 5d ago
It’s actually insane how wasteful it is. Closed loop systems are not that much more expensive. They could also likely figure out a way to utilize the waste heat, like running steam chillers. It’s so fucking annoying that these companies will not so a single innovative thing if it costs them a penny more unless they are forced to.
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u/_amosburton 5d ago edited 5d ago
first, let me say screw all these data centers, but the engineer in me is twitching. physics doesn't change just because people have more money.
Closed loop systems are not that much more expensive.
they do use more electricity and generate more carbon though. most fossil fuel power generation has a water usage component to it as well. depends how clean the local grid is but there are cases it doesn't save that much water net. if it's all solar powered that's a different story (but how many data centers are?). everything is a trade off.
running steam chillers
the waste heat is no where near hot enough to generate steam or really do much with. that's why it's called waste heat or low grade heat. it's a pretty broad physics/engineering problem and if you have a good idea to solve it you can make millions.
i'm all for innovation, but do you really think the people building and designing cooling systems for 100+ years now never have thought about this before?
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u/SaltyYumYumBalls 5d ago
We hate AI data centers, not data centers in general. Data centers making work easier with Office 365 or hosting or streaming my video games are good. AI data centers giving me the same ChatGPT and a bunch or derivatives I used 5 years ago poping up like weeds near or in residential zones, poisoning water supplies, noise pollution, and more importantly driving up the prices of consumer electronics and gaming hardware are bad, really freaking bad. They even created a cartel in the computer memory industry.
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u/goldcakes 5d ago
Yes as it turns out people do like being able to access the internet, play video games, or stream Netflix. We don’t hate DCs. We hate AI for how wasteful they are, and how the hyperscalers just flat out ignore laws and environmental regulations, like operating dirty generators without permits.
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u/Diz7 5d ago edited 5d ago
Data centers are fine for traditional uses. You can get billions of pages of information and content, and millions of hours of content served out of one every month. The average rack pulls 5-15kw. It makes for a large total demand for the whole building, but it's also serving billions of requests making it very effective on a per user basis.
Nobody cared too much about those.
AI data centers get hate specifically because they serve far, FAR fewer requests, but need far, FAR more power, the average rack using 50-150kw+. When your system takes 10x more power to produce less information and handle less requests per month, and some of that information is just made up, it's going to get some pushback.
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u/canada432 5d ago
Exactly this here. People don't hate data centers, they hate these giant AI data center complexes. Nobody had a problem with data centers prior to the AI bullshit.
I used to work in a colocation data center, and the difference between one of those and one of these AI data centers is pretty insane. We had to do things like follow environmental regulations, pay for our own power and water, maintain minimal generator use and follow local water restrictions during droughts (which often resulted in us running on our much more expensive chiller cooling system).
What people hate is them ignoring all the regulations, bribing officials, and making the people pay for their own abuse, all to power something designed to put them out of a job and ruin their lives.
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u/Diz7 5d ago
Paying for your own power and environmental concerns suddenly become a much larger problem when you multiply the power consumption by an order of magnitude but don't increase the actual revenue accordingly and rely on investor money because nobody is willing to pay you what it actually costs to provide your service.
They are trying to keep the house of cards from collapsing until they can work out some miracle breakthrough that makes it profitable, or at least squirrel enough money away to keep up their standards of living until their next grift.
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u/bender___is___great 5d ago
“People don’t like that I’m making the places where they live shittier while producing zero benefits for them and threatening their livelihoods”
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u/Coneder 5d ago
Gee, if only we approached AI from a point of view where they were a tool and not a means to replace human labor?
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u/grandmasterkif 6d ago
Americans simply do not trust any tech companies, period.
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u/kaishinoske1 5d ago
I mean when mayors, city council members are getting threats. As well as the many shady methods to set up data centers by having those building disguised as utilities with the help of city councils so no one would protest the construction sites, as well as not even letting people vote on if A.i. data centers would be allowed to be built. Let’s not forget the many A.i tech bros CEO’s that decided it was a good idea to go to universities across the U.S. this year and decided to be guest speakers at graduation ceremonies to tell those graduates that A.i. is here and to deal with it among the many boos. Yeah, You did this shit to yourself.
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u/YoursTrulyKindly 5d ago
If only they had regulations to make them less disruptive or destructive.
But the plutocrats are dumb. Like very very dumb people who understand nothing outside their narrow field of expertise (conning people).
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u/DutchDonkey23 5d ago
Not just data centers - also the enshittification, job losses, brain drain, privacy theft, etc. This AI zeitgeist has robbed us in ways we don't even know yet.
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u/basketballsteven 6d ago
Well to be fair I hate/fear the dangers the data centers bring with them and equally hate/fear the tech oligarchs and their motives and vision.
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u/Irish__Rage 5d ago
Had these morons actually had some vision and integrity they would of combined their desired data center boom with actual action on helping America upgrade and modernize the energy grid. Not by tax payer hand outs but a combination of private and public investments that would provide the energy they need and lower costs for consumers WHILE chosing locations and technology that minimize environmental impact. Instead these comic book villains just want to take take take like always and ask for corporate wellfare.
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u/wardamann 5d ago
People hate being ignored by their own local government because of the money involved.
People hate AI because it’s the billionaires way of trying to eliminate the need for any of us
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u/Apprehensive_Ratio80 5d ago
I only learned today the data centers use up so much microchips and materials it also is increasing the cost of all electrical equipment FOR EVERYTHING sooooo yeah f&&k data centers phones and PlayStations cost enough
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u/feelthecernburn 5d ago
It never had to be this way. It was possible for them to be well liked by the people. But the tech companies failed to build trust with us over the years. There used to be a time when tech companies were more liked and trusted. But between the constant bait and switches, ads, antitrust behavior, flock cameras, building datacenters in the worst places, etc. they squandered their standing.
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u/Nephrelim 6d ago
I mean, there is a reason why! Data centers are power hungry, generates pollution and barely has a benefit to the community as it doesn't really employ as much people as other factories or businesses would. Moreover, AI is a technology that generally is viewed with revulsion, as people get replaced as AI becomes more powerful.
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u/MajesticBread9147 6d ago
Datacenters should absolutely be forced to build and run off their own renewable energy.
However the typical factory in America employs about 20 people as well. Some employ more depending on the scale, but it often takes about as many people to watch over a few hundred robots than it takes to watch over 100,000 servers.
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u/Nephrelim 5d ago
I agree that if they want to build Data centers, they should build their own power infrastructures so that they don't leech off the community's. But more than that, they should have plans that mitigate the environmental impact of their data center.
As for employment, I did not realize US factories does not employ a lot of people. I am in a third world country so a typical small factory here, employs a few hundred people, but then again most of the factories here are labor intensive affairs.
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u/zrleonard187 5d ago
Ive worked in American factories nearly my entire life. A factory with a 20 person workforce is a mom and pop shop. A legitimate factory employs 10 times that
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u/exoriparian 5d ago
It doesn't benefit the community at all, it harms it. Everything AI is doing is just making our lives worse.
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u/DoesntMatterEh 5d ago
No fuckin shit dude. They suck copious amounts of power and potable water, they take up large swaths of real estate, provide basically no jobs and they're fucking LOUD.
Literally what's to like? And all you get is... What? More LLM computing power for people to generate videos of fruit people cheating on each other?
Also I've noticed a lot of people who speak out against data centers are still using the AI tools that require them. If you don't want data centers, don't use LLMs or stable diffusion or whatever else this fake ass iteration of 'AI" does.
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u/DrWindupBird 5d ago
I think he’s intentionally missing the bigger point. It’s that people no longer trust what that these tech bros are promising. In my city, we’re resisting a data center because they purposely avoided a public referendum and we have no faith that their promises about resource consumption and tax revenue are anything but empty. I would resist any large project that comes from the tech-o-sphere, not because I’m a Luddite but because I don’t trust those snakes.
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u/chanti1985 5d ago
I hope Americans find courage to push back against unchecked expansion of these data centers and shameless capitalism that allows these wealthy folks to become obscenely richer while poor and middle class continue to bear the brunt.
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u/weirdoldhobo1978 5d ago
"I think that AI will probably, most likely, sort of lead to the end of the world. But in the meantime, there will be great companies created with serious machine learning." — Sam Altman, June 2015
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u/fat_kaiju 5d ago
Oh? You mean the dude who doesn't understand consent and was clearly going through AI psychosis when he was babbling about 'creating god' on Elon's nazi website a year ago?
Dude needs to fuck off.
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u/techyall 5d ago
This isn't why they're stopping the projects. They always knew that people hated them. The real reason they're stopping is bc they realised it's not profitable. That's why they're only now admitting that people don't like them and are using that as an excuse to stop whilst not mentioning the the real reason they're stopping.
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u/InvestigatorIll9993 5d ago
Here are the terms and conditions Sam:
- no tax breaks. Fund our schools, libraries, and public services
- build your own power plants and route your extra capacity to the grid to subsidize our utilities
- clean and reuse your waste water and don’t put your e-waste in our landfills
- figure out how to make it quiet. You supposedly have super intelligence, so what’s the problem
Do all that and we’ll look the other way while you build The Matrix.
YOU HAVE TO PAY US AND YOU HAD BETTER BE GENEROUS. Us the people, not our representatives.
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u/ACasualRead 6d ago
If AI is the reason for all these data centers popping up, what’s the game plan when future models become very powerful efficient? Now we don’t need these centers. Will they be abounded across the country like old Sears stores?
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u/MustardEnema007 5d ago
No, there will always be a desperate need for gargantuan bot farms to argue online with other monstrous bot farms. And it will soon require a dysons sphere worth of energy to run
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u/IceKrabby 5d ago
I think some of the replies are somewhat right. But I expect a lot of it to just straight up be streaming/cloud replacements for local hardware.
"Oh you can't afford a new PC anymore? Well good thing we have all these data centers all over the place for you to subscribe to use our PCs!".
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u/ledow 5d ago
Nobody hates data centres, they're inanimate objects.
What they hate is the people who build them on land that could be used better, in such a way that they consume inordinate amounts of vital resources, and then pretend they're absolutely critical despite the fact that we don't actually need them at all.
Plus the way they skirt the laws to get them built, put them in the poorest areas, don't give a FUCK about the locals and the impact on their power, noise levels and water supply, and then tell people "Hey, this is progress, you're an arsehole if you don't support it!".
Nobody hates the data centre. They hate you. And the other pricks forcing them upon people and neighbourhoods against their will. Including... gosh... your own data centre head?!
Fun fact: We've had data centres for decades, all over the world. Guess why it's a problem NOW, and WITH YOU AND YOUR INDUSTRY PARTICULARLY.
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u/boolpies 5d ago
This push for AI has completely destroyed any chance of public support. Their greed was so great so insatiable that it will likely backfire.
I really hope the public holds them and their political cronies accountable this time.
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u/Sprumbly 5d ago
I do think we need to be clear it’s not just data centers as a concept.
People hate not having running water or power as it’s diverted into these things, people hate getting rare forms of cancer due to the pollution they cause, people hate not being able to sleep form the loud humming, people hate having the temperature raised by 10+ degrees in the surrounding area.
There’s plenty of reasons to hate ai even from just a moral or principled standpoint but the presence of a data center is a direct attack on the lives of everyone in a several mile radius
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u/Rough_Deal_7315 5d ago
Sam Altman is completely disconnected from what paying utility bills means… sorry were not all fabulously rich like him
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u/rmobro 5d ago
Oh sam. Its not that theyre hated, its that theyre using up critical resources, being paid for with taxpayer dollars through breaks, ruining cities and neighbourhoods, destroying the global stock market, warping computer component pricing, contributing to un and underemployment, and providing absolutely zero benefit to anyone.
Thats all.
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u/bopojuice 5d ago
Yes Sam, but more importantly we ALL hate you and will cheer and throw a party worldwide when you are gone. Trust me…not a single tear by even your wife or children will be shed for the true and total fucking purely evil Demon that he is.
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u/Hovercraft869 5d ago
Why would any town willingly allow their land, air, electricity, and citizen safety be affected, polluted, and jeopardized by these lazy AI enthusiasts and crypto players. The “benefits” don’t go to the locals. If one needs to consume the resources then the benefits need to go further and the players should figure out (maybe use Chat gpt?) how to come up with a way to power their hobby without stealing resources from local citizens.
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u/E-2theRescue 5d ago
If they were fully closed systems that used seawater instead of precious freshwater, then there'd be no problem.
If they paid their own utility bills instead of getting massive deals that consumers end up paying, then there'd be no problem.
If the people categorizing the content for the LLMs and image generators were paid actual fair wages instead of $1 an hour (and worse for disabled people), then there'd be no problem.
If the content being categorized wasn't taken from artists without royalties being paid, then there'd be no problem.
If they used solar and wind power instead of carbon electrical grids, then there'd be no problem.
If they didn't build these things next to residential areas and then fuck the neighbors over with noise, light, and water pollution, then there'd be no problem.
If they didn't create massive amounts of heat and take up precious land, then there'd be no problem.
If the whole entire thing wasn't built on a house of cards that is nothing but vast amounts of debt that, when it eventually tumbles, will destroy countless lives which will only result in a bailout for the rich (again), then there'd be no problem.
If there wasn't a gigantic push for a mass surveillance state using these data centers, then there'd be no problem.
But because ALL of these things exist, there's a massive fucking problem, and we all have very strong issues with it.
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u/ExF-Altrue 5d ago
The problem isn't data centers, it's how they are currently being built in the corrupted USA in 2026.
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u/jardex22 5d ago
Forcing it through, yeah.
At the same time, no one likes the idea of an entire town's water supply and power grid being used for a single structure that doesn't contribute anything to the community. The property tax doesn't offset that.
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u/onimush115 5d ago
Oh you want us to put something in our community that will raise rates for electric, consume vast amounts of water in our already drought stricken state, cause noise pollution, and provide nearly zero jobs in return?
What's this data center going to be used for? Oh that's right, to help empower corporations to eliminate jobs with automation to create mass unemployment and consolidation of wealth while at the same time allowing the government to create a police state that tracks every citizen.
Crazy how people don't want this, right?
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u/SaraAB87 5d ago
The people who approve and allow them to be build near people's houses should have to live in the neighborhood closest to the data center for the rest of their lives. Period. No exceptions. This would set everything straight real quick.
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u/moufette1 5d ago
Data centers that hold my data are fine. They are also fine if they hold data and applications that are part of society. They are fine when they are few.
They are not fine when they are used for LLMs that have copied other people's intellectual property and summarized it. They are not fine when they clog up every application with offers to help. No thanks, I learned to read decades ago and don't need help summarizing the 2 sentence email.
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u/I_SLEEP_NORMALLY 5d ago
He’s so close to the right answer. People hate data centers becaaaaaause? They hate AI.
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u/Ana987655321 5d ago
Gary, Indiana went dark because of a data center. Gary can’t even get online to have their data mined. They can’t be offered targeted advertising because the advertisers bought the power company.
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u/travisjudegrant 5d ago
Americans don’t necessarily hate data centres; they hate getting fucked by corrupt politicians and psychopathic corporations, both of which are fuelled by greed.
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u/timeaisis 5d ago
It’s literally a lose-lose for communities. Doesn’t create jobs or bring in tax revenue but it does strain the power supply and increase rates. Would anyone want that?
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u/demonfoo 5d ago
But they'll swear up and down how they contribute to the tax base, while they immediately get 20+ year property-tax abatements, somehow completely missing the irony.
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u/kumquat_bananaman 5d ago
But, but, my opinion of them is only poor because China told me so!!!
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u/Loud_Bee_4443 5d ago
Sam is aging rapidly by the looks of this photo. Being a massive POS takes a toll I guess.
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u/BrianWonderful 5d ago
I think a lot of these oligarch tech bros know that their AI hype is false, and they clearly see that the bubble is going to pop at some point. It will be interesting to see if any of them try to break off from the pack to become "the reasonable one" and recoup some public faith. (Might be a smart move to avoid total public hatred and potentially some fraud trials.)
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u/trymorecookies 5d ago
He always does this, acting like the guy in the hotdog suit trying to figure out who caused this mess.
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u/longstrokesharpturn 5d ago edited 5d ago
You know what would help? If you didn't build it as a pure parasitic presence that just extracts resources and pollutes.
Instead, you could make a tiny start with building it in such a way that it doesn't extract resources, doesnt cause noise, use the ground surrounding it for improving biodiversity, working together with wildlife and ecosystem experts, and make investments in improving local infrastructure, communities and social cohesion, you know, that might be a start.
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u/gavinashun 5d ago
Huge ugly buildings that are noisy pollution machines that steal all the water and create almost no jobs? Yeah, that was impossible to predict.
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u/morganational 5d ago
Aww, poor Sam. 😭 You've hurt his feelings, I hope you're proud of yourselves.
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u/Jim-N-Tonic 5d ago
Clearly people dont like paying for your data centers with limited resources so you and your fellow AI idiots can make billions off of us.
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u/mike194827 5d ago
They are loud and often raise regional energy/water prices, they have almost 0 full-time jobs once built, many having only a few parking spots for this gigantic box building, and they make money only for the big companies while nothing is put back into the local economy. Yeah, they aren't popular.
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u/sixtninecoug 5d ago
No shit people hate them.
AI is a fucking joke.
Everything we see now is some kind of an attempt to sell us more shit. That’s the only real goal of AI. It’s what everyone learned about social media wrapped up in a package just waiting for us to buy it.
The addictive tendencies, with an emerging industry means there’s lots of potential for growth.
And we all know by now that profitability isn’t enough, the only metric that matters is MORE. So the fact that it’s a growth industry is all that the assholes care about. “What other garbage can they sell us?”, and not even THEY really understand AI, so they don’t know what to do with it. They just want to have it first.
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u/SugarRushLux 5d ago
Besides the obvious environmental impact of the data centers and the pushing the electrical cost onto consumers because reasons maybe put them far away from people so they don’t have to get severely ill from the low frequency noise pollution
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u/No_Detective1650 5d ago
Sam Altman is a Conman who acts altruistic. Really just a giant lying scammer who has never got caught. Look at his past. Fuck this guy and the AI he is building.
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u/AggravatedMango 5d ago
Oddly enough I believe most people also hate Sam himself. He’s just too rich to notice.
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u/bailaoban 5d ago
They hate data centers that a) taxpayers subsidize b) drive up cost of living c) pollute their environment and d) enrich a sociopathic oligarch class at the expense of the middle and lower class workforce.
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 5d ago
It's called NIMBY, and the only good version! Keep the fuckin' corporations out of our backyards, M.F.'ers!
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u/Loud_Bee_4443 5d ago
All of you will lose your jobs, we have no plan for you. Get out of the way of progress and be quiet. We are also taking away your access to hardware by making it unaffordable to the common consumer who we also don't care about. pay my electric bill and be poisoned by the data center that will be used to imprison you in the future.
Waaaah, why does everyone hate us?
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u/TheHammer987 5d ago
These people kill me.
Make the data centers silent. Make them rely on renewables that are silent. make them employ 100 people from town to mow the community park you put in near the silent, solar operated beautiful building. Make them use air conditioning and not the towns water supply to cool.
They will cost double. And people will beg you to build them there.
No one wants your money making eye sore stealing from their community. Noise pollution. Air pollution. Water polution. No jobs. Make it so your FUCKING BUILDING CONTRIBUTES to the locals, and they will welcome you.
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u/Fmarulezkd 6d ago
Sam Altman is a snake.