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Comment by pseudosavant | Hacker News Reader

The anti-AI sentiment has more to do with tech than AI. Big Tech's actions speak to how little they care about people, and people have picked up on it loud and clear.

Tech companies could build data centers in ways which are more palatable to local residents, but using less water or straining local electricity grid less costs more. And they care about costs more than communities. Even though a coal plant is objectively worse than a data center, that is (understandably) what local residents' sentiment is.

Big Tech is going to face ever growing opposition until they start catering to the needs of the communities they want to operate in. They aren't entitled to operate like this in any of our communities.

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> until they start catering to the needs of the communities they want to operate in

Never gonna happen, can't set bad precedent by breaking protocol. They'd rather bribe their way out of any problems, which is in line with protocol.

> anti-AI sentiment has more to do with tech than AI

It's absolutely concentrated in AI. Billionaire taxes aren't as popular as datacenter bans.

> Tech companies could build data centers in ways which are more palatable to local residents

Tech has been doing this for decades without breaking the law [1] and driving up power prices [2]. It did it without constantly screaming about how it's going to cause mass unemployment or end the world. It did it without funneling money to–and being publicly championed by–historically-hated politicians.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=JumpCrisscross

[2] https://www.factcheck.org/2026/10/data-centers-and-electrici...

I'm not suggesting AI data centers aren't the focal point, but it is more a symptom than the disease. Big Tech does so much to infuriate people, and their attitude towards AI data centers is just the peak expression of it. Tech is all about:

1. Making sure they are the only industry that wins

2. Dark pattern subscriptions that are very difficult to cancel

3. Garbage customer support, even for paying customers

4. Rampant privacy violations

5. No loyalty to employees even in rich times (e.g. MSFT asking 25% of employees to leave when they are absolutely printing money)

6. Tax avoidance at all costs, so there is no economic benefit to a data center in your location.

7. A faux moral high ground that they'll abandon the second they need to ingratiate themselves to corrupt politicians or need to pollute more for AI.

8. Only shareholders matter. Forget customers, communities, or employees.

It is an unmistakable stench that teaches people that tech doesn't value them at all beyond a monthly subscription.

I've worked in tech my whole career, and our industry sucks ass. It is only getting worse too.

These are valid gripes–I'd guess most people on HN agree with them. But this election wasn't about dark patterns. The fury is specific to datacenters and AI. If policymakers miss this and get distracted with a list such as yours, they will have failed.

I’m not thinking about this from a policy maker POV. Their constituents definitely expect them to focus on AI data centers.

I’m thinking about this like a post mortem for the tech industry. There is a reason consumers have no love for big tech, and data centers are just the latest and biggest reason.

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