MADISON, Wis. – A recent social media post depicted a bucolic scene with a barn, silo, farmhouse, lush fields and a lakeshore with these words emblazed across the rendering: “It’s not worth giving up an inch of Wisconsin to a data center.”

Leaving aside the fact three hyperscale data centers are already approved or being built in Wisconsin, the post was locally created using artificial intelligence – which is precisely why data centers and their servers are needed.

The post prompted a vigorous (and sometimes profane) exchange that captured America’s continued unease over AI, a rebellion previously confined to data centers but which has spread to the technology itself. That’s taking place even as much of the rest of the world is embracing AI as a deliverer.

Why are many Americans so scared or even angry about AI, even when people in China, India, Brazil, Singapore, Malaysia and many other countries outside Europe are not? Here are factors that cannot be ignored in a competitive world.

  • The Green factor: Data centers at the hyperscale level use massive amounts of electricity – from 100-plus megawatts to several gigawatts per center. They can also use millions of gallons of water annually, although alternative cooling methods are emerging. Then there are those idyllic farms that show up in memes.
  • The Evil AI factor: Many people see AI as having the power to harm children, start major wars, kill jobs, prompt suicides and give grifters one more tool with which to grift. Potentially all true, which is why many states are pursuing regulations to curb abuse. While certain jobs are endangered, others are not and still more will be created in time.
  • The ‘Tech Bro’ factor: Leaders of the “Magnificent Seven” are sometimes seen as greedy, uncaring and willing to build data centers over their mothers’ graves. While hardly endearing, they are competing among themselves as well as others worldwide to advance a transformational force. (By the way, Microsoft President Brad Smith was raised in Appleton, Wis. How despotic can he be?)
  • The Trump factor: It has reached the point where many Americans will say, “If President Trump is for it, I’m against it.” However, his call for national AI standards has stalled as states take the lead. 
  • The Powerlessness factor: This may be the single biggest reason why AI is plummeting faster than Trump in the polls. College graduates have booed commencement speakers who say good things about AI. Twenty-somethings who were early AI users now worry about rising to the levels of their own potential and creativity – only to be crushed by a ‘bot. These same young people don’t trust national leaders, mostly from older generations, to understand AI well enough to spot its flaws as well as its potential.

A survey by the Marquette University Law School polling center found that 70 percent of Wisconsin respondents thought artificial intelligence is overall a bad thing for society. That’s consistent with national polls.

Also recently, Pope Leo XIV issued his first encyclical, entitled “Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.” It wasn’t a condemnation of AI, but it called for stiffer regulation.

Somewhere along the line, messaging about AI’s core purpose got garbled: It works by using amounts of data and algorithms to find patterns, learn from them, make predictions and perform tasks that augment – not replace – human intelligence. It is fueling progress in manufacturing, health care, transportation and other fields; major training investments are being made in higher education, especially in Wisconsin. 

Artificial intelligence is already omnipresent, which is what some people don’t like about it. Human apprehension is nothing new when it comes to new technologies. It happened when people invented steam locomotives, telephones and elevators. That time has come for AI. It may come, too, as fusion and quantum escape the laboratory and hit the marketplace.

Over time, AI will do much more to save Wisconsin farms and jobs than to destroy them. That social media meme was catchy, and AI helped to create it with smart human help. We need both.

Still is past president of the Wisconsin Technology Council. He is an adviser to Competitive Wisconsin Inc.