The AI Industry Has Acted So Badly That It’s Now Dealing With a Huge Wave of Hatred

A new wave of public backlash against the AI industry is intensifying, with 40% of US adults predicting AI will have a negative impact on society, according to Pew Research, and 75% opposing hyperscale data centers near their homes, per a Gallup poll. Protests against AI companies have surged, with 142 protests across 42 states in a single day, as concerns over inflation, pollution, job loss, and mental health fuel resistance.

The tech overlords pushing the AI boom are quickly wearing out what little welcome they had. You may have noticed big-name AI labs pushing new commercials lately. Meta’s new 60-second ad spot https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1344461651205053 insists that the “future is for everyone,” even as CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s personal net worth eclipses the GDP of Hungary. Anthropic’s new commercial https://youtu.be/jVbGX7zJHi8?si=eW83AvqDpxeT0mAO for Claude assures viewers that there’s “hope in hard questions,” seemingly embracing the discomfort that comes when your software is used to bomb elementary schools https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/pentagon-ai-claude-bombing-elementary-school in Iran. For as magnanimous as these new PR stunts appear on the surface, a vast swathe of the public they’re meant to sway are rejecting the industry’s faux-populism messaging out of hand, as the cost of AI — born out in inflation https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-data-centers-opposition-inflation , data center pollution https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/pollution-ai-data-centers-severe , fears of job loss https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/20/ai-job-worries-human-skills-machines-cant-replace and mental health concerns https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/paper-proposes-ai-psychosis — becomes too much to bear. According to data compiled by Pew Research https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/03/12/key-findings-about-how-americans-view-artificial-intelligence/ , 40 percent of US adults predict AI will have a negative impact on society writ large, compared to just 16 percent who say it’ll have a positive effect. A whole 31 percent of those surveyed think AI will have negative consequences for themselves, personally, over the next 20 years. As disgust with AI itself grows, so too does resistance to the hardware embodying its rise. Per a separate poll by Gallup https://news.gallup.com/poll/709772/americans-oppose-data-centers-area.aspx , flagged by Business Insider https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-anthropic-ads-trust-us-defensive-2026-7 , an astonishing three-quarters of US adults are now resolutely opposed to hyperscale data centers popping up near their home. City councils are increasingly forced to reconcile https://futurism.com/science-energy/data-centers-protests-electricity with landowners hostile to any AI data center appearing in their district, putting significant strain https://futurism.com/science-energy/data-centers-construction-supply on developers hoping to gorge themselves on the fruits of the AI boom. Protests against AI companies are flaring up across the country, with 142 protests across 42 states in one day alone. https://time.com/article/2026/07/22/community-backlash-ai-data-centers/ Time reportingBeyond data centers, a decentralized but highly-motivated movement is growing around the chopping, hacking, and outright sabotage of AI-integrated surveillance cameras https://futurism.com/future-society/redditors-flock-surveillance-alpr-vandalism-memes . A parallel struggle is being waged around AI-integrated surveillance drones https://futurism.com/future-society/americans-raging-police-drones , with organizers in cities like Minneapolis https://mndaily.com/city/minneapolis-city-council-strikes-down-controversial-police-contract-with-drone-pilot-program/07/23/2026/eicmndaily-com/ beating back ambitious police dragnets. So if you’re a tech executive trying to win back the masses to the AI revolution, take note: it’s gonna take a lot more than a few smarmy commercials to solve your PR problem. More on AI: Google’s Profits Look a Little Terrifying Under the Hood https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/google-ai-profits-finance-bubble-alphabet