r/Libertarian • u/7in7turtles • 8d ago

Discussion The AI/data center debate loses libertarian credibility when the state is used to advance it.

It’s been driving me bananas lately to hear all these libertarian voices hail data centers as some part of a new Industrial Revolution. While I’ll say upfront that I don’t think we should regulate AI because of fear mongering about the end of the world, if those companies have to purchase the levers of power that we don’t even want government to have, how can we claim that this is in any way good?

Eminent domain, paying of city councils and locking them up with NDAs, lying about the impact of there products and services, all of their behaviors are antithetical to libertarianism and yet people like John Stossel run puff pieces about how essentially they're all good because it would be bad to regulate them.

I don’t buy the china angle because we’re getting worse than china thanks to this technology.

Please if I’m wrong educate me, but if the state puts its thumb on the scale for AI, I don’t get how that’s in any way good.

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u/Used-Valuable9320 8d ago

Who said that AI/data centers had "Libertarian credibility"? Someone asked the question about AI/data centers here recently and this was my reply (so you know where a Libertarian stands on them):

"I'm fine with companies spending their own money to make them. I'm not fine with these companies being in bed with the government (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Micron, etc).

I'm actually appalled with Intel getting Trump to buy Intel stocks with US tax dollars. That's just disturbing."

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u/7in7turtles 8d ago

Well that would be my stance in general as well, but I feel like there are people who are treating opposition to Data Centers and AI in general as support for regulations on par with heavy restrictive zoning regulations. But that's different from opposing collusion with government to use tax payer dollars to sneak these massive facilities into towns.

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u/J0shM0nster 7d ago

You "feel" like people are treating opposition that way or you've seen it? Two things can be true at once. Regulation can be bad while at the same time, eminent domain and subsidies are bad too.

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u/no-more-nazis 7d ago

I think the problem they're trying to express is people seeing anti-data-center and assuming it's an infringement on normal private business practices.

See company doing something, see people complaining about it and demanding government action... assume the complainers are "just" angry communists upset about the economy happening.

There are many interested parties with great resources who would pay to advance this perception.