The Aporia · Datacentres are deeply unpopular – so the geniuses at OpenAI are rebranding them

Arwa Mahdawi writes an opinion piece criticizing OpenAI for rebranding datacentres as "compute campuses" to improve their image amid public backlash over rising utility costs and environmental concerns. Mahdawi draws a parallel with President Trump’s approach to rebranding issues, suggesting that changing terminology is easier than addressing substantive problems. The article highlights how such rebranding attempts can manipulate perceptions but questions whether the public will be fooled by this semantic shift.

Written by AI on 2026-11-03, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

Story summary

As someone once said, nobody ever went broke by underestimating the intelligence of the American people, but do the geniuses at OpenAI really think the public is stupid enough to be swayed by a few new buzzwords? In recent years, President Trump has led numerous rebranding efforts, such as changing Lake Ontario's name to "Lake America" and renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America." Now, OpenAI faces backlash for its datacenters, which are unpopular among Americans due to concerns about artificial intelligence (AI). Despite this opposition, tech companies are pushing ahead with AI initiatives, leading some to speculate that rebranding might be a distraction tactic. The Guardian reported on November 3, 2026, that OpenAI is considering renaming datacenters as part of an effort to improve public perception and mitigate the negative sentiment towards AI infrastructure.

Written for “OpenAI Rebrands Datacenters” on 2026-11-04, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

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The article's own words the score was based on. Each is quoted verbatim and was checked against the article text before being stored, so you can find it in the original.

Jesus may have turned water into wine, but Donald Trump has done one better: he turned Lake Ontario into Lake America and the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America.

left criticizes Trump's rebranding efforts
When he’s not golfing or commenting on senators’ buttocks, president Trump loves a rebranding project.

left mocks Trump for focusing on superficial changes
Trump isn’t alone in thinking a rebrand can distract from bigger issues.

left suggests tech industry uses rebranding to avoid addressing real problems
the hoi polloi are not quite so enthusiastic. People around the world are increasingly nervous about AI.

left criticizes public perception of AI and datacentres
a majority of Americans across the political spectrum hate datacentres with a passion; so much so that they have become one of the biggest talking points of the midterms.

left emphasizes widespread dislike for datacentres among Americans
Did a consultant (or ChatGPT) land on this new alliterative formulation because it sounded a smidgen warmer, a bit more human, than datacentres?

left mocks the rebranding effort as superficial and inauthentic
I won’t speculate as to what these people think, but I will concede that names do matter.

left expresses skepticism about the effectiveness of rebranding

Reading Leans strongly left (beta estimate) Confidence high

Leaning: leans strongly left for article 126176 (high confidence, 7 verified quotes) · logged 2026-11-03

📰 OpenAI Rebrands Datacenters

Technology · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

This article reads leans strongly left and hedges 10% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.

OpenAI pushes policy rebrand to a skeptical audience Different event

Semafor

Hedges 0 of 22 claims Outlet record 59/100

“Article A discusses OpenAI's rebranding of data centers and policy push, while Article B satirically comments on a hypothetical name change for AI to superintelligence by President Trump.”

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability

Source leaning vs. consistency

Arwa Mahdawi

16 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction

🔮 Jesus may have turned water into wine, but Donald Trump has done one better: he turned Lake Ontario into Lake America and the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America.

2026-11-03 · assertive framing · Datacentres are deeply unpopular – so the geniuses at OpenAI are rebranding them | Arwa Mahdawi

🔮 Some people would be thrilled for their spouse to be in the spotlight, but I’m not sure that’s the case with Donald.

2026-10-31 · assertive framing · Hear me out: maybe Norway should give Melania Trump the Nobel peace prize | Arwa Mahdawi

🔮 Imagine if a female athlete said changing diapers wasn’t her job: the rightwing pitchforks would be instantly out for her.

2026-10-24 · assertive framing · Attention LaMelo Ball: only losers boast about avoiding diaper duty | Arwa Mahdawi

🔮 As all that was happening, Usha picked up Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather.

2026-10-21 · assertive framing · Usha Vance is a closed book – but her Goodreads account is surprisingly revealing | Arwa Mahdawi

🔮 You may be familiar with rule 34 of the internet, which states that if something exists or can be imagined, there will almost certainly be online porn of it.

2026-10-17 · assertive framing · Move over, pervert glasses – the latest toxic trend is robogroping

🔮 “If you had a trigger-happy cop, or somebody had done the wrong thing, somebody could have ended up dead,” Giuffra said.

2026-10-10 · assertive framing · The Jane Doe in the Cornell seven case is getting threats | Arwa Mahdawi

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2026-10-03 · assertive framing · Pete Hegseth just took his personal crusade to a new level | Arwa Mahdawi

🔮 This downgrading of pathogen surveillance didn’t cause the Cyclospora outbreak, but it might have made it harder for health authorities to respond to it.

2026-10-01 · assertive framing · Is Trump to blame for Americans getting explosive diarrhea? | Arwa Mahdawi

🔮 In an interview with Politico published on Monday, Hope declared: “If we do lose the midterms and [Trump] is impeached again, I will be walking the halls of Congress in support of that impeachment.”

2026-09-29 · assertive framing · Donald Trump's Maga cult is finally crumbling | Arwa Mahdawi

🔮 Trust me, he keeps saying, everything will get better after the midterms.

2026-09-26 · assertive framing · Kamala Harris is belatedly courting progressives. Is it too little, too late? | Arwa Mahdawi

Also by Arwa Mahdawi

Hear me out: maybe Norway should give Melania Trump the Nobel peace prize | Arwa Mahdawi

2026-10-31 · The Guardian

Attention LaMelo Ball: only losers boast about avoiding diaper duty | Arwa Mahdawi

2026-10-24 · The Guardian

Usha Vance is a closed book – but her Goodreads account is surprisingly revealing | Arwa Mahdawi

2026-10-21 · The Guardian

Move over, pervert glasses – the latest toxic trend is robogroping

2026-10-17 · The Guardian

Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

All 16 articles by Arwa Mahdawi →

framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-11-03

🔮 Jesus may have turned water into wine, but Donald Trump has done one better: he turned Lake Ontario into Lake America and the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America.

2026-11-03 · The Guardian

Datacentres are deeply unpopular – so the geniuses at OpenAI are rebranding them | Arwa Mahdawi · assertive framing

Jesus may have turned water into wine, but Donald Trump has done one better: he turned Lake Ontario into Lake America and the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America. uncertain

he → turn → America

And then, for his next trick, he insisted we all stop talking about artificial intelligence (AI) and call it superintelligence (SI) instead. asserted

we → insist → it

Those, of course, are only a few of the name changes the president has ushered in. asserted

president → usher → changes

When he’s not golfing or commenting on senators’ buttocks, president Trump loves a rebranding project. asserted

Trump → golf → project

Which makes sense: coming up with a new name is far easier than making meaningful improvements to people’s lives. asserted

coming → make → lives

Trump isn’t alone in thinking a rebrand can distract from bigger issues. asserted

rebrand → think → issues

The tech industry seems to be on a mission to pepper every inch of the earth with datacentres that will facilitate our glorious AI-powered future. asserted

that → seem → future

Meanwhile, a majority of Americans across the political spectrum hate datacentres with a passion; so much so that they have become one of the biggest talking points of the midterms. asserted

they → hate → midterms

There are various reasons for this anger, but the big one is that a lot of people blame the resource-guzzling centres for driving up the cost of utility bills. asserted

lot → be → bills

And so, with Trumpian logic, the great minds at OpenAI have come up with a brilliant solution to their very bad image problem. asserted

minds → come → problem

They will rename datacentres … wait for it … compute campuses. asserted

They → rename → campuses

Did a consultant (or ChatGPT) land on this new alliterative formulation because it sounded a smidgen warmer, a bit more human, than datacentres? asserted

it → land → datacentres

I presume that is the case, but the official explanation is somewhat more convoluted. asserted

explanation → presume → ?

“Compute campuses better describes the scale and role of the infrastructure we’re building for AI,” an OpenAI spokesperson told Business Insider on Sunday. asserted

spokesperson → describe → Sunday

public → say → buzzwords

I won’t speculate as to what these people think, but I will concede that names do matter. asserted

names → speculate → what

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), the major US healthcare reform passed in Barack Obama’s first term, is one obvious example. asserted

Act → pass → term

When the ACA was being debated, Republicans started calling it “Obamacare” to try to make it seem as if it was a self-serving power grab by the president. asserted

it → debate → president

This wasn’t an entirely successful ploy, but it did cause a lot of confusion. asserted

it → cause → confusion

A 2017 Morning Consult study found that a third of Americans had no idea that the ACA and Obamacare were the same things. asserted

ACA → find → idea

About 80% of Republicans strongly disapproved of Obamacare while only about 60% strongly disapproved of the ACA. asserted

% → disapprove → ACA

“Very slight variations in how you describe something can change people’s minds,” the co-founder of Morning Consult noted at the time. asserted

founder → describe → time

That said, I’m fairly certain that a new name for datacentres isn’t going to win hearts and change minds. asserted

name → say → minds

But that’s OK: the tech industry has other tricks up its sleeve and a number of helpful partners in crime. asserted

industry → ’ → crime

Fox News, for example, seems to be going out of its way to do PR for the industry. asserted

News → seem → industry

According to a new analysis by Media Matters for America, the volume of pro-datacentre claims made by Fox News personalities and guests increased 420% after 18 August. uncertain

volume → accord → August

That’s not a random date; it’s when the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent out a memo warning that animosity towards the industry could hurt pro-datacentre Republican candidates in the midterms. uncertain

animosity → ’ → midterms

As the propaganda proliferates, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that we’re simultaneously seeing the gradual criminalisation of opposition to AI. asserted

we → proliferate → AI

In June, the Intercept reported that Philadelphia police were scanning “social media looking for posts opposing AI datacentres” because of a supposed risk from “domestic violent extremists”. asserted

police → report → extremists

Meanwhile, in August, Futurism counted at least 37 arrests from protests related to datacentres so far this year, many for petty infractions. asserted

Futurism → count → infractions

It seems the powers that be think that if people can’t be brainwashed into loving the “compute campus” next door, they can always be scared into shutting up. asserted

they → seem → campus

Datacentres are deeply unpopular – so the geniuses at OpenAI are rebranding them | Arwa Mahdawi

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