California · Anthropic · OpenAI · Meta · CNBC Technology
Tech backlash reaches fever pitch as AI angst collides with social media fears
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Silicon Valley's technology leaders have long dreamed of making the world a better place.
Key facts
- Confidence in AI executives is even more dismal, according to a CNBC Generation Lab survey of 18- to 34-year-olds
- During the first quarter of this year, around $130 billion worth of data center projects were blocked or delayed due to local opposition, according to a report from Data Center Watch
- Jim Steyer, CEO of the nonprofit Common Sense Media, said bipartisan opposition to tech extends well beyond data centers
- WATCH: Tusk Venture’s Bradley Tusk on what data centers need to do to gain trust
Summary
The rapid rise of artificial intelligence giants like OpenAI and Anthropic has exacerbated a deep malaise toward the tech sector, especially among people who have come to associate AI with job loss and now see outsized data centers rising up in their backyards. At a time of stubbornly high inflation that's pushed consumer confidence to a seven-month low, Americans are looking up to see tech's trillion-dollar companies getting bigger and more powerful, all while being led by some of the wealthiest people on the planet. "If this technology takes off in the way that you see the CEOs of AI Labs talking about, we're facing a significant impact to our economy, to people's jobs, to their sense of agency," Sarah Myers West, co-executive director of research firm AI Now Institute, told CNBC in an interview.