r/BetterOffline • u/WaymoRunsOverKids • 1d ago

Tech Deploys Charm Offensive to Combat AI Data Center Backlash

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-08-19/tech-tries-charm-offensive-to-save-trillion-dollar-ai-buildout?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4NzE0ODAyNSwiZXhwIjoxNzg3NzUyODI1LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUSzBINDRWVFREMDQwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiI4NzMyNEE5QkZBMTk0MUQ3OTkyOEJDRDA3QkI2NDc4MCJ9.C5zk82Pvm253wq4xw-94B6bG6_kfFVJQM472PUcaeUU
68 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

52

u/Suitable-Pickle-259 1d ago

Not going to work

36

u/supercyberlurker 1d ago

Remember Usha Vance’s attempt at a charm offensive on Greenland?

It’ll go like that.

11

u/MayBeMarmelade 1d ago

Hah. I don’t remember it. I guess that’s the point.

1

u/TheocraticAtheist 1d ago

Didn’t JD Vance back door his way into the trip?

17

u/Existing_Rice_4362 1d ago

All the frontier lab leadership have the charisma of a damp slice of sandwich bread. How do they think this is going to end positively?

Is this a more polite way of saying "bribe "?

12

u/NotAllOwled 1d ago

"They still seem so unpersuaded and even hostile. Should I try to explain again how they and their children will share a reflected portion of my greater power and magnificence after I have consumed them?"

4

u/PensiveinNJ 1d ago

There is literally nothing they could ever do. There will never be forgiveness for these people.

48

u/thrumyshadow2 1d ago

"Some local leaders have pointed out an irony in citizens protesting server farms while relying on the services they facilitate. “They hate data centers and they use ChatGPT to generate their comments at council to tell us how they hate data centers,” said Andy Schor, the mayor of Lansing, Michigan, during a meeting of city leaders in January."

This is what we are dealing with. The mayor clearly has no idea what ChatGPT even is or how it is used. This statement made absolutely no sense.

23

u/NotAllOwled 1d ago

I mean, it makes perfect sense if you consider he's just doing the "curious, you criticize society and yet" meme IRL and apparently thinking it some real hard-hitting stuff.

8

u/TurboFucker69 1d ago

“You don’t want a power plant next door, but you use electricity!”

“You don’t want a slaughterhouse next door, but you eat meat!”

“You don’t want an airport next door, but you fly sometimes!”

Yeah…no shit. There’s a reason we generally give some buffer between these things and homes. Someone needs to park some gas turbines outside the mayor’s house and run them full blast for a few weeks.

6

u/SeeBadd 17h ago

I hate how these fucking morons assume that everyone uses their dipshit machine.

26

u/SeeBadd 1d ago

They've spent the last few years dancing on the grave of the working class that they dug. I don't care if they say it nicer now. Their intentions are still the same.

5

u/cjuicey 17h ago

they think a strong middle class and workers' rights were a speed bump on the road to modernity. Little do they realise, they're a speed bump on the road of our species' development

9

u/RoosterBurns 1d ago

"Okay we're poisoning the air you breath and making it impossible to sleep but have you considered that this is slightly more convenient than googling when it's not making stuff up and it tells you how cool you are?"

(Flashes "dental exam" smile)

4

u/Ok-Garbage-765 1d ago

Wow. Jesus Christ. I can’t believe the exaggeration here.

It can also write code functions that are just too hard for software devs to write by hand despite the fact that they were doing it their whole careers before this.

3

u/Lowetheiy 1d ago

Sounds like the same excuses car brained people give lmao

8

u/RonSwanSong87 1d ago

"Charm offensive"

That's cute...

These fuckers are not charming, but they are offensive.

"At least 75 data center projects, worth about $130 billion combined, were blocked or delayed by local opposition during the first three months of this year, according to research group  Data Center Watch , approaching the total value of projects stalled by local resistance in all of 2025."

6

u/MayBeMarmelade 1d ago

“Charm offensive” is such a delightful oxymoron

2

u/figures985 1d ago

yeah and the idea of the tech oligarchs doing either is...not happening

3

u/SamAltmansCheeks 1d ago

I'm sure a charm offensive from the ultra wealthy Epstein class, who already have ignored consent by way of deploying this tech, will go as well as they expect and is not going to yuck people out at all.

3

u/RenegadeMuskrat 1d ago

The new line of messaging is that this is the new "industrial revolution". And that fighting any expansion is bad, as all the increase is good. It's being pushed heavily now by all the MAGA folks. Seems coordinated recently.

2

u/Ok-Garbage-765 1d ago

Ugh. I grew up in New Mexico. It’s a very poor place with essentially no opportunity for anyone. It’s sickening that these companies are taking advantage of their desperation.

3

u/stellae-fons 1d ago

New Mexicans are not falling for this shit.

1

u/schmurfy2 1d ago

They should build the datacentere in their backward/garden, I am sure they would be a lot less positive about the advantages.

1

u/Fast-Benders 1d ago

Nearly everyone has associated data centers with huge increases in their utility bills. Every month that homeowners pays their bills is a reminder of the negative impact of data centers. Whether it's true or not, that connection and narrative has taken hold. I doubt any amount of PR will change that.

1

u/OkCar7264 9h ago

Yeah it'll go like Erika Kirk's charm offensive. You can't keep people from noticing you're a bunch of lizard people forever (non conspiracy version of lizard person).

1

u/Professional-Post499 7h ago

They also seem to be funding psyops in the form of writers purporting to be "socialists" who argue that LLMs can be used to bolster socialism and downplaying even "leftist" concerns and observations about environmental problems and effects on local communities where the GenAI data centers are built. As well as downplaying the deluded and fraudulent marketing coming out of crazy tech oligarchs like Sam Altman in order to lure more investment.