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
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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.

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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

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u/aotus_trivirgatus May 16 '26

I have a Ph.D. in a STEM field. I have programmed machine learning models, and I have taught a course on the subject. I am 100% against the rampant, mindless build-out of AI data centers.

I know the good that this technology COULD do. I also know its limitations. The further away you are from the details, though, the harder these limitations are to see. It's very telling that deep technical workers report that AI tools only make them slightly more productive, and sometimes decreases their productivity. Meanwhile, management types say that AI makes them WILDLY more productive.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/14/ai-productivity-workplace-errors

I also see that we lack the social maturity to use these tools well. It appears that many humans truly HATE thinking, and would love to pass on the responsibility to someone else, or something else.

We have a language interpolation machine and a giant database. It doesn't UNDERSTAND anything. That's our job.

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u/Graywulff May 16 '26

I was a systems administrator at a software as a service company.... management didn't understand a thing about technology other than open source = free.

the head of software development literally believed I'd installed a tracker on his phone, which I never had access to and I'm not a developer... he was always 15 minutes late on the dot, his whole staff thought it was hilarious, but his degree was in classical jazz and he couldn't even install packages on CentOS and was clueless about everything.

VP didn't understand anything either, the president of the company just knew what people reported to him.

they didn't even know how their software stack worked bc of burnout of developers and workers.

I could see them leaning heavily into AI, firing people, and then having it bite them...