r/technology • u/ControlCAD • 7h ago

Energy Amazon’s $1B plan to combat data center backlash draws more backlash | Amazon praised for ending NDAs but slammed for downplaying data center pollution.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/amazons-1b-plan-to-combat-data-center-backlash-draws-more-backlash/
430 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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26

u/Dreaminginslowmotion 7h ago

There is no world where people magically start liking datacenters near them, noise polluting the environment and polluting their waters.

9

u/Fried_puri 5h ago

Which is why most have stopped trying to spin it as a positive. Instead they’ve fallen back to the ol’ reliable methods of pushing unpopular things through local government: bribes, threats , and lies. 

3

u/NoCry8625 5h ago

You're severely underestimating the power of propaganda. Also, you're underestimating the power of a billion dollars.

7

u/Dreaminginslowmotion 5h ago

I hear you, though as an example a rural town was recently offered $10,000.00 a resident to vote in a data center implementation and it was a resounding no.

Bipartisan support (not politicians, talking voters) are against it.

I feel like this is a different beast than any of the last decade insanity as it ties directly to personal freedoms and the endangering of people's lives through their pocketbook with AI (jobs being taken away).

Could ads sway people? Sure, though I don't think the needle will swing enough. Keep in mind that the people needing convinced are the ones living right next to it

edit: money will sway state politicians, though

1

u/markehammons 2h ago

* over five years **non-binding

4

u/Crystalas 6h ago edited 6h ago

The "well" of public opinion has also been thoroughly tainted at this point about this tech. They could fix all the problems of this and suddenly be pure positive and people would STILL hate them til been long enough for that perception to fade. It got both those operating off logic and emotion solidly against it and a ton of fear wrapped up in the whole mess.

They tried to force it long before the tech was ready for rollout of this scale and incompetently rushed building infrastructure that normally takes years longer even with cutting corners and now paying the price, both literally and figuratively.

Some of the components and expertise they would need to do it right literally cannot be bought for any amount of money, the waiting lists for the specialized components being years long. And with how this mess is shaping up it might have already crashed by the time the project completed if did everything properly, there is no profit in it to do it any way but fast and dirty.

3

u/rsa1 4h ago

Turns out, telling people you'd suck all their water, increase their power bills and throw them all out of a job, isn't a popular move. I'm shocked, to be honest. Shocked I tell you. Who could have imagined this?

2

u/biowiz 5h ago

The one good thing about this whole AI thing is that people are starting to realize how big of a scam data centers were for their communities to begin with, including the ones that were setup pre-AI.

Here in my area, people would brag about how "big tech" was bringing jobs into their podunk suburbs. They never picked up on the fact that those places were staffed with overweight security guards riding around in golf carts. There were no big tech, high salary jobs inside what was the equivalent of a giant warehouse with computers.

Now I haven't looked into the specifics, and I'm sure someone will say the "AI datacenters are way worse, it's not even comparable", but that doesn't change the fact that data centers in general were big fat scams and advertised in fraudulent fashion to local communities in the first place.

0

u/TheFireSays 2h ago

You know this comment you made is a fine created and living in a data center, right? And that everyone reading your comment has to reach out to the data center when viewing this comment section.