{"id":3908,"date":"2026-09-05T08:51:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T08:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=3908"},"modified":"2026-09-05T08:51:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T08:51:03","slug":"tech-ceos-raved-about-ai-at-the-g20-but-protesters-outside-highlight-the-techs-popularity-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=3908","title":{"rendered":"Tech CEOs raved about AI at the G20, but protesters outside highlight the tech&#8217;s popularity problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2292627030-e1788569475853.jpg?w=2048\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Inside the G20 event in Chapel Hill, N.C. this week, tech leaders like OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman\u00a0raved about AI\u2019s capabilities and the need to build more data centers. But outside, protestors struck a different tune.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a \u201cfireside chat\u201d with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Altman called AI \u201cincredible magic of intelligence in a bottle,\u201d while also warning AI\u2019s infrastructure needs would keep expanding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEven with great gains in efficiency, we are going to need to build much more infrastructure, unless we want this to be a highly priced model, which we don\u2019t,\u201d he added, according to local news outlet the <em>News &amp; Observer<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Palantir CEO Alex Karp were also present and projected similar positive messages. Tesla CEO Elon Musk spoke via conference call.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beyond the security perimeter just outside the Carolina Inn, a hotel on the campus of the University of North Carolina where the tech leaders gathered, hundreds of protestors assembled on Wednesday morning to voice their displeasure with AI, data centers, and the billionaires behind them, among other concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are mad because AI data centers are polluting the water and the air in many communities,\u201d said Rob, a college student who wished to be identified only by his first name.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Others, like Melisande Timblin, a 2005 graduate of the university, called out what she said were false promises of long-term employment touted by data center developers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey come in and they sell them a big lie. They say we\u2019re going to build these data centers. It\u2019s going to provide hundreds of jobs building this data center. Okay, you\u2019re going to give these people jobs for just a few years while you build it,\u201d Timblin told <em>Fortune<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The contrast inside and outside the G20 this week highlights the growing reputational problem AI is facing as data centers crop up nationwide amid growing protests.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have both softened their earlier dire warnings about AI job displacement, some of which have fed the tech\u2019s unpopularity. Amodei once made waves by saying AI could replace 50% of white collar jobs, but more recently has called AI a multiplier of jobs.\u00a0Altman, for his part, said this year AI is unlikely to lead to a \u201cjobs apocalypse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, Amodei also acknowledged last month that AI faced a crisis of trust among the general public and said it must produce a breakthrough, like curing cancer, to earn it back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Partly because they\u2019re the most visible manifestation of AI, data centers have become the focus of protests nationwide. Residents across the country have pushed back against projects over concerns about data centers\u2019 demand for electricity and water, as well as the potential for pollution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Activists staged 142 demonstrations against data centers across 42 states in July alone, Reuters reported. And public opinion is strongly on their side. A poll from the <em>Economist<\/em> and YouGov earlier this week found that two-thirds of Americans are opposed to building a data center in their local area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nationwide, data centers have emerged as a major midterm election issue on both sides of the aisle. Even in Texas, the state with the\u00a0second most data centers in the country, Republican Gov. Greg Abbot recently introduced stricter rules for data centers amid a close re-election race. Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is facing a tight contest for a Senate seat, also hardened his stance against data centers recently.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In North Carolina, where the G20 meeting in Chapel Hill took place, dozens of local governments have adopted moratoriums or tighter zoning rules as data center proposals spread across the state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the same time, more than 3,000 data centers are planned or are under construction, adding to the approximately 4,000 that exist already, according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Executives argue that to bring more capable AI to more people requires additional infrastructure development, which also driving demand for construction jobs and related services. Manufacturers of construction equipment are also booming. Signs of mass AI job displacement have yet to materialize.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And in places like Virginia\u2019s Loudoun County, which has the highest concentration of data centers in the world, officials have been able to lower residential property tax rates every year over the past decade because they have been offset by income from data centers in the area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, not everyone outside the Carolina Inn Wednesday was opposed to AI itself. John Montavon, a local resident and former teacher, said he was not anti-technology and said it could be used in both \u201cpositive and negative ways.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, he questioned whether the people inside should be entrusted with determining how it develops.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m concerned about the future of our communities,\u201d Montavon told <em>Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#Tech #CEOs #raved #G20 #protesters #highlight #techs #popularity #problem<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inside the G20 event in Chapel&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[559,906,6786,2155,6783,480,71,812,6784,6214,6785,496,385,4904],"class_list":["post-3908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-ceos","tag-data-centers","tag-g20","tag-highlight","tag-north-carolina","tag-openai","tag-popularity","tag-problem","tag-protesters","tag-protests","tag-raved","tag-sam-altman","tag-tech","tag-techs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - 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