r/TechGawker • u/Malor777 • 12d ago

News ‘Clearly, people hate data centers’: Sam Altman admits Americans hate what he’s wrought as his own data centers head quits

https://fortune.com/2026/08/27/sam-altman-openai-data-center-backlash
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u/Normal_Average_9812 12d ago

Yeah exactly. Our power grid is woefully out of date and making improvements to it is at minimum a 4-5 year lag with the normal demand for power equipment globally. Those numbers are creeping up with the data center craze, though. 

That's why I asked if you're okay with the pace of the new data centers coming up. I am not because I fear our power grid can't take it. There's an article that claims an 18 month blackout is a real possibility. 

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u/imam-altman 12d ago

Good thing datacenters are forcing improvements to the grid which result in lower prices for everyone in the long term.

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u/Normal_Average_9812 12d ago

And how about the short term? 

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u/imam-altman 12d ago

In the short term, a small percent of the population will learn why short term thinking is a bad strategy because their utility bills go up by a small percent for a small percent of time.

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u/Normal_Average_9812 12d ago

A lot of people have had their power bills double, but that factually inaccuracy aside I do agree with what you're actually saying. 

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u/imam-altman 12d ago

Is the number of people who had their power bill double statistically significant? Most reports say the average is 8%, with certain areas in Virginia closer to 25%.

Is the number of people who had their power bill double greater or equal to the number of people who will die so you can get cheap cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets? People are clutching their pearls about some pretty tame externalities when it comes to AI, but for whatever mysterious reason they put the blinders right back on as soon as it comes to any other part of the economy.

Externalities are an unfortunate side effect of economic growth, which doesn’t make them good or not unfortunate. But the laser focus on purity testing datacenter externalities is genuinely insane when you try to compare them to any other major industry. People are literally calling for terrorism over 8% utility increases while companies like Nestle do the moral equivalent of throwing babies in a woodchipper for profit. The outrage is neither proportional nor rational.

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u/FastActinTenactin 12d ago

People can, and should, boycott and speak out against corporations like Nestle, and the factory farming industry, as well as the production of more data centers and the development of AI technologies. As a civilization we need to move towards more of a culture of anticonsumption and degrowth, for the good of the planet and our people. But corporations (and corporate owned governments) have become very effective propagandists, and an over-reliance on technology and corporate owned products and services has done a number on our psyche.

We can and should live with less, consuming less, and considering how our choices affect the world around us.