Close to half of Americans are strongly against artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in their area, according to a new poll.
In the Gallup poll, 48 percent said they would generally “strongly oppose” building “a data center in your area to support artificial intelligence, or AI, technology in the U.S.”
Twenty-three percent said they would generally “somewhat oppose” building a data center, 20 percent said they would generally “somewhat favor” it and 7 percent said they would generally “strongly favor” it.
Measures attempting to halt or reign in data center construction have recently gained momentum at the state and local level, with Americans turning on the expansive buildout of AI infrastructure in their communities.
In April, the Maine Legislature became the first in the U.S. to pass a bill barring the development of large-scale data centers and a Wisconsin city approved a referendum to allow voters greater say when it comes to major tax-funded projects due to the construction of a local data center campus.
A recent analysis also found companies increasingly citing AI as reasoning for layoffs, with April being the second straight month AI was listed as the top reason for layoffs.
The Gallup poll took place from March 2 to 18, featuring 1,000 respondents and plus or minus 4 percentage points as its margin of sampling error.
