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This column is not alone in being puzzled by the abrupt arrival of opposition to data centers, given that they are the closest thing to a free lunch one can find in local governance: large tax revenues with modest demands for services. These computing hives generate data, jobs, income, wealth and not much else. Some Americans don’t want these cash cows arriving in nearby pastures, and one naturally wonders why. Could it be that much of the social-media opposition to the infrastructure of artificial intelligence is also artificial? “China is secretly fueling America’s data center rage” is the headline on a story from Axios. Josephine Walker reports on a new message from X, part of Elon Musk’s SpaceX and a company at the heart of the AI buildout. On Thursday night the X Global Government Affairs account posted: The X Safety team conducted an investigation into suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts involved in influence operations: We identified a bot farm of approximately 200,000 accounts. Within this farm, we found 200 accounts posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy. These posts contained claims that AI data centers are driving up household electricity prices and straining the grid. Others included AI-generated cartoons that depicted data-center operators enriching themselves at the public’s expense. We remain committed to maintaining an open and authentic platform where people debate topics of public interest. We take seriously any attempts to undermine the integrity of the global town square and suspend accounts that violate our Authenticity policy.
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