Trump's Voters Want AI — Just Not in Their Backyard
By Daniel Rao Photo: Inside a data centre — the kind of building voters increasingly do not want nearby. Credit: Christopher Bowns, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0). American voters have just delivered the artificial intelligence industry a verdict it cannot afford to ignore, and the verdict is gloriously, maddeningly contradictory. Build the future, they say. Just do not build it next to my house. According to CNBC's All-America Economic Survey, published on October 24, 63% of registered voters oppose an AI data centre within 10 miles of their home, while only 13% would support one. That is not a close call. That is not a margin-of-error wobble. That is a country looking at the physical footprint of the AI boom and saying, in effect: we like the idea, we distrust the building, and we are fairly sure we do not want to live next to it. The contradiction sharpens when you ask the same voters about AI itself rather than its architecture. A majority, CNBC found, support stoppi...