Leah Feiger: Yeah. They introduced Senator Bernie Sanders, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC), they were the Data Center Moratorium ActThis would stop the construction of AI datacenters until national safeguards were in place. It sounds like this issue is primarily a left-wing one, but it’s actually pretty bipartisan. Many people from across the political spectrum are becoming involved as their constituents reach out. “What are you doing in my name? What are you doing in my backyard? How is this benefiting me? How is this hurting me?” This bipartisanship is something that has really shocked me.
Zoë Schiffer: This is interesting. I think that OpenAI really came in first place on day one of the Trump administrationI was like, “I’m reading Chris Lehane, the company’s chief global affairs officer. He had previously been very high up at Airbnb and a political fixer before that as if this is something he and OpenAI might have thought would be really beneficial for the company.” Chris Lehane is the Chief Global Affairs Officer of OpenAI. He had previously been a high-ranking Airbnb executive and was a political consultant before. The message was America first, Build, Baby, Build.
Leah Feiger: Everyone will get a job.
Zoë Schiffer: The moment was misread. The issue had a toxic effect on them. Now it is very difficult to change the company’s stance, since they have been sending out press releases each time a new facility was built. Then it was like. “Uh-oh, we got to keep it quiet because people really don’t like this.”
Brian Barrett: You are right, but they cannot go back until they have the ability to put data centres in space. They need compute.
Zoë Schiffer: It’s going to be a really hard thing to do.
Brian Barrett: Then it is not possible. Zoë, is there any chance that the sort of internal dissent, right, electricians saying, “I don’t think so.” The workers inside the companies are saying: “Hey, we don’t like data centers either.” Is there any chance this will change anything in the future trajectory of these builds-outs?
Zoë Schiffer: It would surprise me. It’s hard to say no, but I can’t be sure. We have examples of Google employees who came together and pushed back against Project Maven and other censored searches for China, etc., and were able to stop the launches.
Brian Barrett: Project Maven basically used Google Tech to help the DOD, correct?
Zoë Schiffer: Exactly, exactly. It’s been done before. This could happen again. It could happen again. The pushback from hourly employees has been very minimal. The company is bringing on thousands of new employees. It’s been reported that the pay is much higher than most people get in these positions. It’s true that there are people willing to take on the work. But, we will also hear some dissent. While we’re starting to hear more pushback and vocal opposition on corporate levels, the level is still much lower than around 2018.
