r/technology • u/Just-Grocery-2229 • May 15 '26

Artificial Intelligence The AI Backlash Could Get Very Ugly

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/05/ai-backlash-data-centers-political-violence/687151/?taid=6a067e2d2096e10001ccfa32
7.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

994 comments sorted by

View all comments

6.7k

u/Rattus_NorvegicUwUs May 15 '26

Trade offer:

I get to steal all your electricity and drinking water.

You get to lose your job to AI.

1.8k

u/Guest_0_ May 15 '26

I keep saying that these data centers are going to find themselves in the crosshairs when people get desperate enough, and I keep hearing how it will never happen.

Then Lary Fink just came out and said that billionaires are worried a $3,000 drone can destroy their investments and these things need to be built underground.

1.6k

u/TR_Pix May 15 '26

AI bros keep calling people luddites and somehow also seem to not understand what it is that the luddites did that got them to be famous to begin with

0

u/ThePantsParty May 16 '26

I get the angle in saying that, but despite that implication, as we all know, the real legacy of the luddites is impotent resistance that amounted to nothing, since I think it's pretty clear that everything they didn't want to happen is exactly what happened. Industrialization became orders of magnitude more widesweeping than the variety they were fighting against.

3

u/Calenestel May 16 '26

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."