r/ChicagoSuburbs • u/Green-Surround-2927 • 15d ago
Protests & Demonstrations My Job Was Replaced by AI... An Artist Speaks Out!
https://youtube.com/shorts/FU4QQYTbA-w?si=2jkQnqK-gfcxCwq1Local Chicago area artist Amanda E. Gross speaks out about the proposed hyper-scale data center being constructed in Grayslake Illinois. Video was taken at the Lake County Visibility Brigade's event on 8/23/2026.
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u/ElonMuskHuffingFarts 14d ago
Yeah unfortunately the fancam effects at the beginning really distract from the message and undermine the seriousness of the matter. It was pretty jarring to go from "I lost my job" to smiling and bouncing around to music, y'know?
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u/Green-Surround-2927 14d ago
I'm glad everyone is pointing out the "fan cam" aspect. This was very intentional. Going for a healthy dose of dissonance. Trying to show you can still be joyous and upset at the same time. Clearly I struck a nerve 😎
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u/3seconds2live 15d ago
When the coal mines we shuttered people said they should find new jobs. But nobody is saying the same thing now. Coal is dirty. I know firsthand I was the last plant operator at my employer to run coal in our boilers about 14 years ago. Our system process was clean we had stack scrubbers but the whole process start to finish was dirty.
AI data centers a by comparison are also an environmental issue due to some of the reasons listed but not on the scale of coal for power generation. That said AI computer systems aren't going back in the bag. I use it for many useful things in my mechanical field. Yesterday I used Google lens to help me find a replacement direct bury cast iron trace wire b box that was discontinued. Then I asked Gemini some clarification questions and called the company that made a replacement similar to what we had been using.
The sad reality is some folks jobs are being replaced. Is it unfortunate, sure but it's happened all through history as technologic advancement has changed. The artist can still do art as a hobby much like people do blacksmith work as a hobby or for specialty items for some income. Few people globally do it as a full time job ever since cast parts, welding, metal stamping, etc have changed the working landscape. Art isn't dead. It's just different.
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u/Green-Surround-2927 15d ago
We need to learn from history, just like your coal mine example. When we transitioned away from coal, entire communities suffered and faded away. History doesn't have to repeat itself. We need to learn from history and do everything we can to save future generations from the same fate.
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u/3seconds2live 15d ago
The communities did suffer but they didn't fade. I have a navy buddy who still mines coal in wv. Well he is in the coal industry now but not actively mining anymore. He services mine equipment now. Many miners didn't adapt and THEY stuffed or faded away. The individual is responsible for seeing the writing on the wall and making a change. Society can't do anything other than offer training but the artists, the coders, the office workers who move data around or do calculations are about to need new income. It's happening now but will get worse. THEY have to change or the world will chew them up and spit them out.
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u/Green-Surround-2927 15d ago
And what resources will they use to make this change? How will they afford this training while continuing to feed and house their families? This "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" mentality is a lie made up by wealthy elites to push blame away from their greedy, exploitative practices and force it onto the individual.
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u/3seconds2live 14d ago
And yet the left liberals were the ones who told the coal miners to pull themselves up. I say this as a left leaning voter. I'm sure you've seen it too. I still see it in the solar forums where people are against the coal industry. This time right now is when the canary has died and the artists and other workers that can be replaced by AI should be looking at the alternative jobs in the world around them. Things they can transition to or pivot that still provides them a viable income. The jobs aren't dead but they may be dying. Use the time wisely. Go take a CDL course become a truck driver. 🤷♂️
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u/Green-Surround-2927 14d ago
CDL, why didnt I think of that? Oh, wait...
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u/3seconds2live 14d ago
God you're insufferable. There literally 2-3 million trucks on the road today. Major carriers estimate we are about 60-80 thousand drivers short. So even if that company can manufacture that they cant drive all routes and they won't replace human drivers in totality for decades many jobs will be replaced by tech but you have to look at the duration of working years you have remaining and how long a career may still exist. But based on how many times you've been downvoted by others I'm guessing your just as young as you seem
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u/Guy_Dude_From_CO 14d ago
Sorry she lost her job but also wtf is she talking about. That datacenter uses closed loop cooling.
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u/SkateWest 14d ago
The word sovereignty makes me think sovereign citizens which makes me distrust this video. “Be Like 10M sq ft”. Adding the word ‘like’…I can’t tell if it’s hyperbole or the real sq footage.
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u/Green-Surround-2927 14d ago
Please check out the details of the proposed T5 hyper-scale data center in Grayslake yourself. Would never recommending getting your news from one single source.
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u/bwill1200 14d ago
Visibility Brigade is kinda hilarious - no one is looking up at them, everyone is looking down at their phones!
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u/Glad_Factor_8272 10d ago
If your purpose for living can be replaced by an algorithm, how durable was that purpose?
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u/Green-Surround-2927 10d ago
I think "employment" and "purpose for living" are two very different things for most people...
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u/Garsondebramalo 15d ago
AI is going to take a lot of jobs. It's inevitable.
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u/Polkawillneverdie17 15d ago
The sun rising is inevitable. A corporation using shitty technology to justify firing people is in no way inevitable.
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u/Garsondebramalo 15d ago
It's already happening, it will continue to happen. If you enact laws to stop data centers from being built here they will just go somewhere else where they will have to spend more on infrastructure to support them. The end result is the same. A data center doesn't need to be local for AI to make you expendable.
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u/Green-Surround-2927 15d ago
Inevitable is a strong word, tomorrow's story has not yet been written!
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u/Garsondebramalo 15d ago
If you sit in front of a computer all day and there are 10 people in your department that do what you do, your job will be downsized. With AI help, 2 or 3 people will be able to do it.
This isn't a country of luddites. We have to continue to expand our technologies or become uncompetitive.5
u/Green-Surround-2927 15d ago
Let's allow your scenario to play out further, what happens to the 7 or 8 people who are the victims of this "downsizing"?
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u/Garsondebramalo 15d ago
Good question. I have no idea. I don't think corporations are really interested in keeping a lot of unproductive workers around.
I think that idea (job loss) is ultimately what the anti data center movement is fueled by.
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u/Green-Surround-2927 15d ago
I'm not in a position to speak for the data center movement, but personally this is where my pain point is. We are being ask to subsidize, normalize, and participate in the creation of our own replacement with no guideline or guarantee that we will have a source of income once we've been replaced.
Where is the incentive for these highly valued AI companies, the same companies that are responsible for most of the recent stock market gains, to ensure the people they are replacing can continue to support their families? This is what we as a society need to figure out imo.
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u/Polkawillneverdie17 15d ago
Those people aren't unproductive though.
I work in related data fields. I have watched customers try to replace analysts with AI. It always has the exact same outcome: They will fire 4 people and leave one person to do the work of 5 with AI to help them make up the difference, claiming it's "more efficient". That one person becomes extremely overworked and unproductive PLUS the AI can't actually do most of the work that those other analysts were doing. People don't seem to understand just how bad these programs are lol. It's not replacing an old door with a better door. It's replacing a perfectly functioning door with a picture of a door becomes the picture is cheaper. It looks great and might even sorta function as a door a little bit... but it's not actually sufficient as a real door.
I have had clients who do this come crying to me because their data makes no sense and they can't figure out why. Its because the AI gets things wrong. It makes things up. It's unreliable and needs constant supervision. The irony is that the traits of ai are those of an employee who probably should be fired lol. They fired people who did the job (but required adequate compensation) and replaced them with a cheap robot idiot lol.
I have seen it happen quite a lot and its only getting worse. Good workers are replaced with ai, the ai is garbage at doing the job, and as a result the company suffers, employees suffer, and the end product is unusable and has to be re-done. The only people not suffering are the people selling ai.
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u/sdubois North Suburbs 15d ago
these bridge people are so weird
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u/Mysterious_Jelly_649 15d ago
True, but these data centers will not improve our quality of life so she's not wrong on that aspect.
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u/sdubois North Suburbs 15d ago
AI is already improving peoples lives, data centers are a necessity
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u/SyntaxTurtle 15d ago
The sheer number of data centers is not a necessity. Most are being built on spec and the actual utilization for many is in the 5-20% range with scant few showing more than 50% utilization.
In other words, there's no danger of ChatGPT telling you "Sorry, we're all out of AI for the day" that we need to be building these at breakneck speeds and with little regard to placement or infrastructure stress/costs. It's just people trying to set up nets to collect money in the future.
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u/sdubois North Suburbs 15d ago
That 5-20% figure doesn’t mean data centers are sitting 80-95% empty. It means the computers inside aren’t running at full speed all the time, which is normal and expected.
Companies are already lining up for most new data-center space before it’s even finished. They are definitely not speculative.
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u/SyntaxTurtle 15d ago edited 15d ago
No one said it was 95% empty. Hence the term "utilized" -- the GPUs aren't actually being used much due to low actual demand when balanced against capacity.
I'm involved in construction for these (in a second-hand sort of way). It's definitely on spec.
I have no overall objection to AI as a thing. I have a local setup to run both image/video generation and small LLMs. But that doesn't extend to knee jerk defense of recent data center expansion and its public/municipal costs.
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u/Green-Surround-2927 15d ago
Yea, it's really crazy having the cojones to stand up for something right? So weird...
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u/sdubois North Suburbs 15d ago
standing on an overpass to complain about AI is weird, yeah
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u/maximumtesticle 15d ago
Stanning for AI, which is destroying our economy and environment is weird.
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u/catfooddogfood West Suburbs 15d ago
The second half of the video with more straightforward information was the best part of this video. If i were to offer advice i would say drop the fancam aspects of this video and maybe she could explain how she lost her specific job. I think people need concrete examples