A new poll found that Americans hate AI data centers even more than nuclear reactors. In other words, they are less willing to live near an AI data center than a nuclear reactor. A recent Gallup poll found thatAs many as 71% of Americans say they do not want data centers to be built near their residences, which far exceeds the proportion who oppose the construction of nuclear power plants near their residences (53%).
And among all respondents,48% said they "strongly disagree".
The survey, conducted in March, found that data centers are generally unpopular among people across the political spectrum.
Democrats, however, showed stronger opposition. Fifty-six percent of Democrats expressed strong opposition to building data centers near where they live, compared with 39% of Republicans and 48% of independents.
Concern about environmental impact is the main reason
The poll, conducted in March, also showed that46% of respondents said they were very concerned about the impact of data centers on the environment.
In a follow-up online survey conducted in April, Gallup found thatThe vast majority of opposition to data centers stems from concerns about environmental issues and the consumption of natural resources.
Half of those opposed to building data centers near where they live cited “impact on resources” as a major concern, with particular concerns about excessive water and energy consumption.
Nearly a quarter of those who objected were concerned that building data centers near where they live would affect quality of life, including issues such as rising property values due to development. In addition, 20% of people are worried about the increase in living costs, such as higher electricity bills.
In contrast, "anti-AI sentiment" is not the main reason why people oppose the construction of AI data centers. Only 10% of people said they do not like AI technology, and 4% said they do not trust this technology.
AI data centers are high-performance professional facilities designed for large-scale training of artificial intelligence models. These multi-million-square-foot facilities can house hundreds of thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs) required for AI training and require as much energy to operate as the electricity used by hundreds of thousands of homes.
Currently, data center construction is expanding fastest in Texas, Virginia and Georgia in the United States. Companies such as OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, Amazon and Microsoft are all preparing to build very large data centers.
Public opposition has become a major obstacle to the development of artificial intelligence in the United States. Due to public protests, many high-profile data center projects in the United States have been forced to be canceled or scaled down.