The real reason people hate AI data centers so much

AI data centers are facing a populist backlash as communities across the U.S. protest their energy demands, rising electricity rates, air pollution, noise, and water scarcity. A proposed 347,000-square-foot facility in the San Francisco Bay Area has drawn over 18,000 signatures opposing it, reflecting deep anger that AI companies ignore at their peril.

When I shared my predictions for AI in 2026 earlier this year https://www.fastcompany.com/91461250/i-correctly-predicted-chatgpt-my-6-ai-predictions-2026 , I snuck in a one-sentence nugget that turned out to be surprisingly prescient: “In 2026, I expect a populist backlash against the fact that data centers’ voracious energy demands are raising electricity rates for everyday people.” I was right to flag the problem. But even as an AI https://www.fastcompany.com/section/artificial-intelligence expert, I failed to predict its scope. People hate AI data centers https://www.kiplinger.com/taxes/many-people-hate-data-centers-billions-in-tax-breaks . They’ve been blamed https://www.fastcompany.com/91553925/the-backlash-against-ai-in-4-charts for high electric bills https://www.fastcompany.com/91427779/america-has-plenty-of-electricity-so-why-is-your-bill-skyrocketing-electricity-ai-electric-bills , but also air pollution https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/analyzing-air-pollution-health-economic-risks-from-ai-data-centers/ , odd humming noises https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/us/data-centers-noise-pollution.html , water scarcity, fiscal decline https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/states-offer-tax-breaks-ai-data-centers-americans-dont-want/6507973/ , and much else. To be sure, plunking a 300,000-square-foot building filled with power-hungry servers https://www.fastcompany.com/91562830/power-energy-guzzling-ai-data-centers-getting-fast-tracked-thanks-federal-regulators in the middle of a community comes with costs and challenges. But the national uproar over data centers reflects a much deeper anger. AI companies ignore it at their peril. As a journalist, I only fully understood the popular outrage around AI centers https://www.fastcompany.com/section/data-centers when I wrote a story about one coming to my own backyard in the San Francisco Bay Area https://bayareatelegraph.com/2026/06/17/locals-are-upset-over-plans-for-a-massive-data-center-in-contra-costa-county/ . That data center—which has already been approved by the local municipality—will take over a former golf course. At around 347,000 square feet, it’s big, but nowhere near the massive scale of facilities in the Midwest, which can top 1 million square feet https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2025/09/18/inside-the-worlds-most-powerful-ai-datacenter/ . Shovels haven’t even hit the earth on the project, but locals are already up in arms. They’ve flooded local city council meetings with protestors and gathered more than 18,000 signatures opposing the new building https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-data-center-from-coming-to-pittsburg-ca . A social media post I wrote about my story has received 44,000 views and 100-plus comments. Most of the concerns are familiar ones, echoing criticisms occurring all around the country. In a time when energy is already blindingly expensive, many Americans worry that data centers will raise their utility bills https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/10/24/what-we-know-about-energy-use-at-us-data-centers-amid-the-ai-boom/ . Many data centers have massive diesel generators, intended to keep the servers humming if the local power grid goes down. Lots of people worry that those generators will belch smog and cause health issues https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/analyzing-air-pollution-health-economic-risks-from-ai-data-centers/ . The more environmentally minded often point to data centers’ alleged massive water usage https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-centers-and-water-consumption , often quoted in millions of gallons per day. And some people just feel that they’re noisy and ugly https://www.fastcompany.com/91538536/data-center-architecture-aesthetics . Many different people, in other words, have many different reasons for hating AI data centers. But as I’ve seen firsthand, that hatred is deep and abiding. At first glance, this level of popular ire makes little sense. When you actually examine the data about data centers, many claims about their abject awfulness fail to hold up. As The Atlantic recently reported, fears about AI data centers driving up electric prices are often oversold https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/06/ai-data-center-electricity-water/687521/ . A comprehensive study of the economics of data centers recently found that they actually reduce electricity prices slightly https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.19777 . Texas is a perfect example of that fact. The state is leading America’s data center boom, yet its electricity prices are among the lowest in the country https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/the-grid/policy-brief-have-data-centers-driven-up-electricity-prices/ . Prices, the data shows, are far more closely tied to grid investment and factors like wildfire risk than the presence of data centers. Likewise, researchers say https://www.construction-physics.com/p/i-was-wrong-about-data-center-water that the stats about data center water usage are often taken out of context. Scary figures often count inane things, like the evaporation of water from reservoirs upstream of the data center itself. Indeed, my own local data center claims it will use less water than the golf course it’s replacing. Data centers’ ugliness is subjective, of course. But the American heartland has plenty of ugly logistics centers and shipping warehouses that don’t prompt tens of thousands of people to sign petitions. And data center boosters can reasonably point to claims about the centers’ positive impacts. As The Atlantic shares, tax revenue from data centers can have massive benefits for small towns, and unlike older data centers, the AI ones often create high-paying local jobs https://www.brookings.edu/articles/new-evidence-on-data-center-employment-effects/ by attracting AI firms. Given this encouraging data, why have AI data centers become such a hated piece of the American economy and landscape? Based on my own experience as a tech journalist and photographer, I believe the public anger about data centers actually points to a much bigger, deeper issue. Americans are terrified of AI. They often rightly worry that the tech will take their jobs, render their kids’ lives meaningless, steal their personal information, and ultimately destroy American culture. A recent Pew study finds https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2026/06/17/americans-and-ai-2026-chatbots-smart-devices-and-views-on-impact/ that most Americans think AI will be bad for society, with 63% feeling that the tech is moving too fast. Almost three-quarters of Americans think AI will make their data less secure. And most 71% feel that governments will fail to regulate the tech. So there’s a lot of fear and anger around the technology. But the tricky part is that AI is largely invisible. Contrast AI with another much-maligned technology of our modern age: the smartphone. Smartphones are extremely visible. You’re probably holding one right now. That tangible, visible nature makes them a far easier target for expressions of anger and fear. Schools can ban them https://www.foxla.com/news/california-ab-3216-phone-free-schools-act-smartphone-ban , and parents can sign pledges not to buy them for their kids https://www.waituntil8th.org/ . Individuals can lash out against their phone by hiding it in a special, signal-blocking bag https://godarkbags.com/products/godark-faraday-bags-stop-hacking-and-location-tracking-of-your-cell-phone-and-tablet?srsltid=AfmBOoq7x0pg8Y jNZQpRK08TTmSKsXRCTq6stOTHpyO0WaMDg 4JUJY or “bricking” it https://getbrick.com/ with a special dongle. Members of Gen Z can rebel against it by buying a dumbphone instead https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/27/the-boring-phone-stressed-out-gen-z-ditch-smartphones-for-dumbphones . AI is different. Although the technology is everywhere, AI is rarely physically embodied. As a photojournalist, I know this challenge all too well. If I want to visually depict self-driving cars or cryptocurrency, all I have to do is take a train to downtown San Francisco and photograph a Waymo or a Bitcoin ATM. If I want to visually depict AI, though, I have almost no options. Journalists covering the tech often resort to vague illustrations of neural networks, tortured visual metaphors a white robot sitting at a computer, anyone? , or photos of AI’s leaders. This visibility problem extends to popular expressions of anger, fear, and protest about AI and its impacts. Again, if you want to express your anger about smartphones, you have plenty of tangible, visual options, from dumbphones to Faraday bags to the good old-fashioned sledgehammer https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8qJjFCGPYnE . Protesting a nebulous, invisible technology is much harder. AI sits in an abstract cloud, silently altering society in radical, earth-shaking ways while maintaining no presence in the physical world. No presence, that is, aside from data centers. These odd, isolated buildings are the rare places where the world of AI intersects with the real world. They make clumsy, imperfect metonyms for the technology itself. But they’re all people have. And so, people hate them with a burning, fiery passion—not necessarily because the buildings are objectively so awful, but because they’re the only tangible representation of a technology that most Americans find terrifying and bewildering. The data center backlash, in other words, isn’t only about the centers—it’s about AI itself. AI companies would do well to remember that when they communicate with everyday communities. Patronizing messages about how data centers are actually good for the local tax base, or how they’ll drive investment in grid infrastructure, are likely to fall on deaf ears. People who are furious about the tech want their opinions to be heard—not to read nerdy explainers about water usage or carbon emissions. Better transparency from the companies developing frontier models, more opportunities for everyday people to shape AI policy, and more consistent government oversight will help to address public anger. Naively arguing about the technical specifics of data centers, rather than addressing the issue at its roots, won’t. The stakes are high. Violent threats against data centers https://www.newsweek.com/data-center-backlash-threats-violence-anger-spreads-12091889 and even individual AI workers are on the rise. Last year, a man was arrested in San Francisco for firebombing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s house https://apnews.com/article/openai-altman-fire-attack-8cf275557636e0229e0111dbf3a0a47e . People need more outlets to share their fears and concerns about the tech. Otherwise, any physical manifestation of the AI boom, from its buildings to its people, will remain in the public’s crosshairs—both figuratively and, to an alarmingly increasing extent, literally.