Annenberg Public Policy Center:

As protesters rally against data center construction in dozens of states and New York and Texas pause the issuance of permits for large data centers, a new nationally representative survey finds that Americans’ opposition to data centers in their communities has risen sharply since last spring.

The survey, conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania, finds that about 3 in 5 U.S. adults (61%) oppose the construction of new data centers in their area, up 12 percentage points from a survey fielded in February and March.

Americans’ broader views of artificial intelligence (AI), however, have remained stable. The share saying that AI’s impact on the United States over the next 10 years will be somewhat or very negative was 39%, statistically unchanged from the spring. Two-thirds (68%) continue to say the government has done “too little” to regulate AI, unchanged from the spring.

The movement over these four months was concentrated in one place: what Americans think about the physical infrastructure of a data center being built near their home. [Continue reading…]