Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 193
The Magnificent Seven
“Roughly 200 accounts from a suspected Chinese bot farm have quietly tried to influence Americans to oppose AI data centers on social media,” Axios reports.
“The U.S. and China are racing to build the world’s most advanced AI systems — and it appears Chinese propaganda has infiltrated American circles with the hope of slowing the U.S. down.”
“Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh promised to bust inflation in his first major speech since his nomination by President Donald Trump, but he also lavished attention on a new focus for the Fed: artificial intelligence,” the Washington Post reports.
“As voters in both parties grow anxious about the rapid build-out of data centers, President Donald Trump remains one of the tech industry’s most prominent champions — putting him increasingly at odds with members of his own party,” the Washington Post reports.
”Nowhere is that divergence clearer than in Texas, where Trump travels Thursday to campaign for Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general and Republican Senate candidate.”
“Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, has launched an investigation into Flock Safety’s national surveillance network and is demanding to know who has access to the personal data of Americans captured on Flock cameras,” NewsNation reports.
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the use of automated-license plate readers has gotten ‘out of control,’ as debates continue across the country over Flock Safety’s AI-enabled cameras,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said DeSantis: “No one’s been stronger on law enforcement than me—but I don’t want to have this become a surveillance state.”
“Meta Platforms agreed to an $18 billion settlement with 48 state attorneys general, bringing an end to a massive federal trial over social media’s harm to teenagers and ushering in a new era of tech companies having legal responsibility for their platforms,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“As part of the settlement agreement, Meta will also make sweeping changes to its services, Facebook and Instagram, including implementing a default two-hour time limit on its apps for users under 18.”
Time: “The backlash is stealthily turning midterm elections across the country into referendums on anxieties about an economy overrun by A.I., and specifically the role of those data centers that appear to be sending both electricity bills and NIMBY-ism spiking.”
“The shift also sets in motion a messy collision between the GOP candidates adjusting to voter sentiment and the parochial whims of their party leader.”
“Nothing is driving more new U.S. economic investment or political volatility than data centers,” Axios reports.
“They’re the Great Subplot of 2026, THE topic animating the AI race and elections. Everyone needs to understand the size, scope and sentiment surrounding them.”
”It’s almost impossible to wrap your brain around the scale of the cash dedicated to this buildout — now the biggest capital project in human history.”
“Trump Media interim CEO Kevin McGurn on Monday defended his company offering faster access to President Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts, and said more customers have signed up for the pricey and controversial service,” CNBC reports.
Said McGurn: “We’re getting into the mid-teens now, and we’re climbing.”
“President Trump defended the expansion of data centers in an interview with his former fixer, Michael Cohen, that aired in full on Sunday,” Axios reports.
Said Trump: “They’re making their own power plants. They’re building the most beautiful, you’ve never seen power plants like this.”
He added: “Communities that don’t take a data center, they’re making a mistake.”
Washington Post: “In the past six months, Republicans’ public statements about data centers have turned sharply negative, according to a Washington Post analysis of thousands of social media posts and newsletters from hundreds of politicians from both major parties since April 2024.”
“That shift follows a similar one made by Democrats, who have mostly focused on the negative effects of data centers since early last year.”
“Flock cameras are joining data centers as a top midterm boogeyman, with members of Congress and congressional candidates trying to harness a sudden groundswell of grassroots anger over the AI surveillance tool,” Axios reports.
“Why it matters: This blowup over the country’s massive network of license plate readers illustrates how rapidly AI has morphed from a peripheral issue in national politics toward the center of the midterm campaign.”
“Iran shut down a British power plant for four days in an unprecedented cyber attack,” The Telegraph reports.
“It is thought to be the first time that hackers affiliated to the Iranian regime have succeeded in closing down such a facility in the UK, and is believed to be the most successful cyber attack of its kind.”
“The fight over data centers is suddenly at the epicenter of the midterm elections,” the New York Times reports.
“One new ad in Texas begins with someone typing into a chatbot, ‘Why is my electric bill going up?’ Another in Ohio blames one of the state’s Republican senators for a proliferation of data centers, calling them ‘a total scam.’ And in top House battlegrounds in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, the Democratic challengers are all running ads against the server warehouses powering the artificial intelligence boom.”
“Data centers have become unlikely fault-lines in the broader fight over an A.I. revolution that is remaking the global economy and threatening to disrupt the job market. Now politicians are racing to tap into the backlash — or inoculate themselves — as political strategists in both parties described the issue as an unusually fast-moving force that is already reshaping races for the House, the Senate and governor’s mansions.”
NewsNation: Tech industry “screwed up” communication about data centers.
“State governors, including Greg Abbott and Josh Shapiro, slowing development of the facilities as anger over AI spreads,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
What's the biggest factor in voter anger towards data centers?
“If any politician wants to get mothers on their side, they should adopt this issue. It’s such an obvious electoral winner. And what I’ve learned is there is no force in the universe stronger than mothers trying to protect their kids.”
— Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, quoted by Politico, on the threats posed by social media and artificial intelligence.
“Economists have been repeatedly dumbfounded by the resilience of the economy in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, wars, tariffs, inflation and sharply higher interest rates. A simple answer has provided a catchall explanation: the growth of artificial intelligence,” the New York Times reports.
“But the growth of A.I. also poses a risk, reflected in the nearly two-decade highs that yields on U.S. government bonds hit this week, prompting the Treasury Department to try to put a lid on borrowing costs.”
“That risk stems from a borrowing binge by some of the biggest technology companies in the world.”
The Atlantic: “Early this year, Ukrainian officials came to President Volodymyr Zelensky with a risky new plan to end the war with Russia. It would require expanding their bombing campaign to include a set of targets and a class of weapons they had long avoided. In addition to Ukraine’s ongoing strikes against Russian military bases, oil refineries, supply lines, and logistics hubs, the officials wanted to launch waves of AI-enabled drones at Moscow’s airports, hoping to stop international carriers from flying in and out of the Russian capital.”
“If executed, the plan would mark a terrifying milestone in the history of warfare: an attack in which swarms of autonomous drones equipped with AI guidance systems would seek out and hit their targets without a human pilot controlling their movements.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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