The AI industry had a bad night last week.
asserted
industry → have → night
Almost everywhere they could, voters rejected datacenters: moratoriums and other restrictions passed in more than 30 localities across nine states.
uncertain
moratoriums → reject → states
And, with wins in places such as Texas, Ohio and Georgia, an estimated 41% of planned datacenter capacity is in states with governors-elect backing moratoriums.
asserted
governors → estimate → moratoriums
In 2024, Trump ran on lowering prices and starting no new wars, then began a war that raised prices.
asserted
that → run → prices
While corruption, the cost of living, Iran and immigration were seen as more important to people’s votes in NBC exit polls, AI and datacenters were cited by 23% of voters as “crucial” in their decision, and Democrats won these voters 67% to 30%.
asserted
Democrats → see → 30
AI will become the defining political fight of the 2028 cycle.
asserted
AI → become → cycle
The future of US politics will belong to whoever voters believe will bring the industry to heel.
asserted
voters → belong → heel
AI industrialists, in their telling, are racing to build job-destroying machines that might also destroy us.
uncertain
that → race → us
Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, writes that “AI isn’t a substitute for specific human jobs but rather a general labor substitute for humans”.
asserted
AI → write → humans
And OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, infamously said, “AI will probably, most likely, sort of lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime there will be great companies.”
asserted
AI → say → meantime
They built their machines on “the largest theft of labor in human history”, as one Microsoft executive put it.
asserted
executive → build → it
Could you script better villains?
uncertain
you → script → villains
And in recent years, no issue has grown more in salience than AI.
asserted
issue → grow → AI
Local organizing around the country drove an explosion of opposition to AI datacenters.
asserted
organizing → drive → datacenters
Following a summer full of rogue AI hacking incidents and prominent warnings from AI developers, AI extinction fears have gone mainstream.
asserted
fears → follow → developers
Hacks and cyber-attacks, driven by AI, have recently spiked and will get much worse.
asserted
Hacks → drive → AI
And all the backlash we’ve seen to date emerged in a period of 4% unemployment.
asserted
we → see → unemployment
As signs of widespread labor automation grow, we’ll find that we’re nowhere close to the ceiling of anti-AI sentiment.
asserted
we → grow → sentiment
The industry will be hard to tame, but the political upside of doing so is enormous – and it’s anyone’s game.
asserted
it → tame → ?
When NBC asked which party would be better on AI, 30% of voters named Democrats and 27% named Republicans, with 43% saying neither.
asserted
% → ask → neither
The savvier Republicans realize this and are already making the case for a post-midterm break with Silicon Valley.
asserted
Republicans → realize → Valley
Indeed, coziness with the industry trying to replace us with machines was a political liability for Republicans on Tuesday.
asserted
coziness → try → Tuesday
Trump, following advice from billionaire venture capitalists like David Sacks and Marc Andreessen, has taken a “let it rip” approach to AI.
asserted
it → follow → AI
Tech executive donations got them prime seating in the Capitol rotunda during Trump’s inauguration, and no industry has donated more to his ballroom.
asserted
industry → get → ballroom
This summer, the president declared in a social media post: “The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor.”
asserted
they → declare → Centers
And at the industry’s behest, almost every House Republican voted for a provision in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act to override state AI regulations with no federal replacement – an unprecedented move.
asserted
Republican → vote → replacement
(Senate Republicans wisely voted to strip the measure.)
asserted
Republicans → vote → measure
All this and more was fodder for Democratic attack ads, with more than 130 federal and gubernatorial races mentioning tech accountability or AI (only two Democratic-aligned ads between 2020 and 2024 mentioned big tech).
asserted
ads → mention → tech
To get more than a one-cycle bump, Democrats actually have to deliver on the accountability Republicans failed to provide.
asserted
Republicans → get → accountability
And Trump won’t be on the ticket in 2028, but the AI industry isn’t term-limited.
asserted
Trump → limit → 2028
Whoever can most convincingly run against Altman, Amodei, Elon Musk, Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg will gain far more politically than they’ll lose in foregone Super PAC contributions, the limits of which were also on display on Tuesday.
asserted
limits → run → Tuesday
The only competitive race the main AI industry Super Pac spent big in resulted in a loss to Democrat Annie Andrews in South Carolina, who ran on “protecting kids, not big tech”.
asserted
who → spend → tech
Musk’s record-breaking spending of nearly half a billion dollars flopped: Republicans lost every one of the five Senate races he spent the most on.
asserted
he → break → races
All this argues against a return to Democrats’ Obama-era chumminess with Silicon Valley.
asserted
this → argue → Valley
Tuesday night clearly demonstrated that economic populism is the most potent force in American politics – and it’s incompatible with a friendly relationship with corporations that have already grown far too powerful.
asserted
that → demonstrate → corporations
Thankfully, those worried about AI’s dangers have more – and more empowered – champions than ever.
asserted
those → worry → champions
Democratic leadership and key incoming committee chairs have signaled that AI will be one of their top priorities.
asserted
AI → signal → priorities
And the party’s left flank is going further.
asserted
flank → go → ?
Texas Democrat Greg Casar, a former labor organizer and the chair of the Congressional Progressive caucus, declared: “AI will be the number one issue in 2028.”
asserted
AI → declare → 2028
Casar has co-
asserted
Casar → co → ?
…and 23 more, not listed.
The Aporia
