GoKawiil
Tech News
Flock Safety's network of AI-powered surveillance cameras has expanded rapidly across US cities and towns, but communities from both political sides are now organizing against it. Critics cite privacy concerns, lack of oversight, and fears about how police and other agencies use the collected data.
Rising electricity demand from AI data centers is spurring investment in solid-state power transformers, which use semiconductor switching instead of the century-old copper-coil design of conventional transformers. Unlike traditional units, which are hand-built and face multi-year delivery backlogs, solid-state versions can be mass-produced using materials like silicon carbide, making them smaller, lighter, and modular. Tech companies building AI infrastructure are especially drawn to them because they suit the direct current power setups increasingly used to run dense racks of AI chips.
In an interview with Michael Cohen, President Trump argued that towns rejecting data centers are making a mistake, claiming the facilities bring jobs and 'tremendous tax revenue.' His remarks come as data centers face bipartisan public backlash over energy use, water consumption, and local disruption.
Reporting summarized by Futurism shows AI industry leaders responding to growing public frustration over AI products and data centers not by addressing underlying harms, but by launching messaging campaigns framing the backlash as a 'trust' problem. Mark Zuckerberg published a lengthy essay defending AI's promise and criticizing industry pessimists, even as Meta's own internal practices reportedly contradict his optimistic claims.
In an interview with Michael Cohen, President Trump dismissed community opposition to new data centers as a mistake, arguing they bring jobs and no longer strain power grids since companies now build their own power plants under the Ratepayer Protection Pledge. He framed the buildout as essential to keeping US AI leadership ahead of China.
A daily tech digest covers a wave of regulatory and political pushback: both US parties are souring on AI data centers ahead of midterms, Dutch regulators fined Uber nearly $1 billion for automatically deactivating drivers without human review, and TikTok agreed to pay $400 million to settle a US case over collecting children's data. Separately, New Zealand is moving to ban under-16s from social media and Chinese humanoid robots reportedly broke Usain Bolt's 100-meter record at a robotics competition.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott told ABC that AI companies have caused their own backlash by building data centers without coordinating with state or local governments. This marks a sharp reversal from just months ago, when Abbott championed Texas as the 'epicenter of AI development' and celebrated a $40 billion Google investment tied to tax breaks. Abbott recently imposed a moratorium on new data center projects, citing strain on the state's power grid.
Local officials overseeing data center projects in Marshall, Michigan, Salix, Iowa, and Box Elder County, Utah, have reported credible death threats and safety concerns tied to their votes. Marshall's council faced threats after passing a building moratorium, Salix's leaders were threatened over a land annexation for a possible Google site, and a Utah commissioner now has police stationed at his home. NBC News reports this pattern is spreading nationally, with officials targeted regardless of how they vote on data center proposals.
Ed Brady, CEO of the Home Builders Institute, says the rush to build AI data centers is pulling scarce skilled tradespeople away from residential construction. He notes the US already faces a shortage of roughly 300,000 skilled trades workers, and many of those still available are opting for data center jobs instead of homebuilding.