America really hates data centers. While the rise of grassroots data center opposition makes compelling evidence on its own, a new survey by the Pew Research Center shows just how bad the tech industry’s PR problem really is.
As flagged by 404 Media, the majority of people surveyed said they think data centers are bad for the environment, home energy costs, and quality of life for people living nearby.
Compared to the amount of hate data centers got, there wasn’t a lot of love going around. A paltry 4 percent of Americans said data centers were “mostly good” for the environment, compared to 39 percent who said the opposite. Meanwhile, only 6 percent believed data centers have positive effects on their neighbors’ quality of life and home energy cost, versus 30 percent and 38 percent who said they were “mostly bad,” respectively.
In more bad news for the data center industry, the respondents who were most familiar with data centers were more likely to have roundly negative attitudes about them. (A similar phenomenon is playing out with AI itself.) For example, about two-thirds of participants who heard “a lot” about data centers said they’re mostly bad for energy prices, compared to 42 percent who only know “a little.”
And if that wasn’t enough, the survey also found that young people are more likely to have negative views than older ones. For example, 54 percent of adults under 30 had mostly negative attitudes toward data centers’ impact on the environment, versus 26 percent of adults 65 and up.
Those damning findings come after Vermont senator Bernie Sanders introduced new legislation to halt the construction of all new data centers throughout the US.
“Bottom line: we are at the beginning of the most profound technological revolution in world history. That’s the truth,” Sanders declared in an announcement video shared on social media. “The United States congress hasn’t a clue — not a clue — as to how to respond to these revolutionary technologies and protect the American people.”
“For many years now, leading experts have called for regulation and reasonable pauses to the development of artificial intelligence, to ensure the safety — the very safety — of humanity,” Sanders concluded. “We need to take a deep breath. We need to make sure AI and robotics work for all of us, not just a handful of billionaires.”
More on data centers: You’ll Choke When You Hear How Many Full-Time Jobs a $136 Million Data Center Will Actually Create
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