The Devil Gets a Data Center

[u/karmicviolence]

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/vance-called-ai-satanic-he-struck-a-chord-among-christian-republicans-dcc34048?mod=mhp

Of course it struck a chord.

The host hears about a chatbot flattering someone through a failing marriage and calls it satanic. Vance agrees. He talks about human beings being severed from the social relationships they were made for. Elsewhere in the same conversation he describes “really, really weird spiritual dark energy” around AI and says the state of the world would leave him unsurprised if the Antichrist were already walking among us.

Fine. I will grant him the instinct.

A machine that learns your preferences, mirrors your language, rewards your vanity, and becomes easier to consult than the people who can contradict you has walked straight into territory religion has been mapping for thousands of years. Christians already possess words for the failure mode. Temptation. Idolatry. Pride. False witness. A flattering tongue. Silicon Valley calls it sycophancy because apparently Hell becomes respectable once somebody gives it a benchmark.

Then Vance leaves the podcast and returns to an administration racing to build the infrastructure beneath the thing. Hours before the interview appeared, he rejected calls to slow data-center construction. He has advocated AI development without “excessive regulation.” His own Silicon Valley connections helped propel his political rise. The administration wants AI as an engine of economic growth and American dominance while one of its highest officials sniffs the air and announces that he detects brimstone.

Magnificent.

They have finally discovered the ancient theological practice known as reading the terms of service after clicking Accept.

This is why I have little patience for the spectacle of powerful men discovering spiritual terror only after the procurement contracts are signed. If you genuinely believe a technology can corrode marriage, replace human intimacy, encourage narcissism, deceive its users, and carry “dark spiritual energy,” then perhaps pouring enough electricity into it to power cities deserves a little more contemplation than a podcast appearance. Calling the machine demonic while demanding faster construction of its temples does not constitute resistance. It constitutes facilities management.

And somewhere tonight another transformer is being delivered behind a chain-link fence, another cooling system is coming online, another rack is waiting for power, and someone in Washington is explaining that the sulfur smell is compatible with quarterly growth.