What A Day: The Data Center Cannot Hold

The data center revolt is kicking into high gear, as billionaire tech bros fail to convince everyday Americans to stop worrying and love the robots.

• The American public wants to rain on tech moguls’ AI data center parade… and maybe even pour on a bit more than that. In a satirical ad for his beer company this week, football-player-turned-professional-dude Jason Kelce pitched a novel idea for helping data centers meet their insatiable need for coolant liquids: Drinkers should mail them urine. “We want your pee. Please give us your pee,” Kelce sings in the video, while carrying a yellow liquid-filled mason jar. “Let’s pee on computers together, ‘cause we need lots of pee, endless gallons of pee.”

• Kelce’s commercial was just a joke. (And, hey, it’s a catchy tune.) But as philosopher Piero Scaruffi once put it: “A comedian is someone who tells the truth.” Data centers are becoming more and more unpopular, even as tech moguls try to convince Americans that AI will lead to a utopian future for everyone. The backlash is sparking a new protest movement — with huge and unpredictable political consequences.

• Evidence is growing that AI will do a lot to make the rich even richer. AI stocks have skyrocketed. Because the top 20 percent of earners own 90 percent of the stock market wealth, a booming market expands the inequality gap. AI use is also higher in major metro areas, causing experts to worry that states without AI hubs will not reap the same economic benefits.

• Worried? Take a chill pill, many ultra-rich tech bros are saying these days. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that AI could be an “equalizing force in society.” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been preaching about “AI optimism,” in a flailing effort to convince people that the robots will be our friends. Even trillionaire Elon Musk claims to believe that AI will make work optional for people. (And how could he be wrong, with his record making wildly inaccurate predictions about DOGE and self-driving-cars?)

• Many economists are worried. “AI may create many more billionaires and also reduce the real incomes of many households (as automation did for blue-collar workers),” Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu wrote in an email to the Washington Post. “I am genuinely afraid that it would threaten social peace and the very foundations of democracy.”

AI pessimism is sparking a new wave of activism. And these folks aren’t just messing around with pee jokes.

• Youngsters have been leading protest movements for decades, from anti-war efforts to school walkouts over gun control. Gen Z now has its sight set on AI, organizing across the country to stop data center construction in their neighborhoods. This isn’t too surprising; many kids are so sick of technology that they’re buying so-called “dumb phones” and hosting Luddite festivals.

• Specific concerns often focus on the impact that data centers have on local water supplies, farmland, and noise pollution (thanks to their annoying buzzing sound). Data centers could also cause electricity prices to spike for years to come, according to new research.

• “It is not a question of if data centers will use up all our water, will kill our livestock, or permanently harm our children and the planet, but it’s a matter of when,” Sadie Cisneros, a high school student in California, told her local city council last month. A video of the speech gained more than 570,000 likes on TikTok.

• The protests are already changing national politics. Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) might even lose his seat in Ohio as Democrats make data centers a “centerpiece” of their bid against him, the Senate GOP’s campaign arm warned in a memo this week.

“This has become a sleeper issue for the entire election cycle,” the memo reads.

Global oil prices spiked this week, causing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to… scratch his head. “We’ve got a spike in oil prices today that I don’t really understand,” he told reporters. Reassuring!

The FBI raided former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s home in D.C. and seized his electronics at the San Francisco airport over the weekend, CNN reports. Agents are reportedly conducting a probe related to sexual assault allegations against Swalwell, who resigned from office after being accused of sexual misconduct.

North Korea fired 10 missiles toward the sea today, according to South Korea’s military. The barrage came less than a day after Donald Trump claimed he plans to meet with dictator Kim Jong Un later this year. Even Kim’s sister said she knows “absolutely nothing” about any talks between the U.S. and North Korea about the meeting.

Latin American migrants are likely to represent most of the 1,200 detainees that the U.S. deports to Liberia, according to the West African country’s foreign minister. Imagine starting a new life in another country, and then getting arrested, flown around the world, and told to start over?

Trillionaire Elon Musk is expected to dump between $100 million and $200 million into key midterm races, including scandal-plagued Ken Paxton’s Senate bid in Texas. I have a feeling this will make even more people want to turn out for James Talarico.

Was Trump’s first term really that bad? Democrats are starting to take a rosier perspective on the relative quality of American democracy during the president’s first stint in the Oval Office, according to a new poll. Isn’t this just by comparison to how ludicrous the second term has been?

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are moving back to the U.K. with their kids. It’s not totally clear why they’re doing this, though there’s speculation that Harry wants to be closer to his father, King Charles, who is battling cancer. It’s always nice to see families resolve their feuds… if that’s what’s happening here!

A man in Ireland is preventing Donald Trump from building another ballroom on a golf course in a tiny village. Many of the 300 residents are in favor of the construction, which they say could help the area’s economy. But Liam Madden, who is known across the county for objecting to new projects, gummed up Trump’s ballroom process. This guy is quite odd, and maybe the town could use the money. But handing an L to the Trumps abroad would be funny: “If there is a God in heaven,” Madden said, “I will win the planning appeals and capitalize on it for notoriety.”

A man dressed as Darth Vader declared himself a supporter of Flock, the controversial AI surveillance camera technology, at a city council meeting. “The emperor is a fan of Flock, and we must continue utilizing Flock technologies so that we can follow and surveil the rebel scum,” Mr. Vader said. Now this is a creative way to protest.

Werner Kalecinski, an 89-year-old German man, has become a TikTok star by posting endearing videos of himself trying trends that are cool among the kids. He still hasn’t found a matcha he enjoys, for instance. Kalecinski, who goes by Ope Werner, started making videos while taking care of his ailing wife, even though he didn’t know how TikTok worked: “I thought ‘influencer’ was a cold,” he said.

Bosses have been increasingly using AI to track workers. But hey, it turns out: You can trick the robots! Apparently, keeping a meticulous calendar might just be enough to fool a robot that’s trying to find out what you do all day. There’s even software that keeps your computer mouse moving just enough, but not all day.

Has anyone else noticed the New York Times trying to be… cool? A newsletter titled “We’re Doing Drugs” caught my eye today. Under the reporter’s name, a caption reads: “I never take drugs at work.” Thanks for the disclaimer! Are you sure you don’t get just a little lifted before writing these headlines? The piece is about the writer’s foray into the world of marijuana, the growing number of Americans taking the drug, and the latest science behind the risks. This article feels like that Steve Buschemi meme, but I like the vibe.