As food delivery workers on e-scooters whizzed past a hulking tour bus parked next to Anthropic’s headquarters in downtown San Francisco on Monday afternoon, software engineers returning from their lunch breaks snapped pictures of a brash slogan bursting out of the bus’ idyllic Americana artwork of farmhouses and fields of grain.
asserted
engineers → whiz → grain
“AI Data Center Revolt,” the bus’ detailed wrapping declared, proclaiming its mission to rally communities against wanton data center construction efforts across the country.
asserted
wrapping → declare → country
The bus and its small crew of conservative activists from a group called Humans First had just completed an over 8,000-mile whistle-stop marathon of a road trip on perhaps the most uniting theme today: anti-data-center sentiment.
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bus → call → theme
“This technology is being shoved down people’s throats,” said Amy Kremer, chair of Humans First, admiring the bus’ artwork from a nearby sidewalk.
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Kremer → shove → sidewalk
She said the group aimed to push back against AI giants and their assumption that they can build billions of dollars of AI infrastructure without residents’ input.
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they → say → input
“That’s not the American way,” she said.
asserted
she → ’ → ?
Founded this year as a coalition of left- and right-wing activists who worry that the rush to embrace AI is being spearheaded by tech oligarchs steamrolling Americans’ ability to steer the technology, Humans First has since morphed into a conservative-only effort led by Kremer to advocate for better guardrails on data center construction and AI in general.
asserted
First → found → construction
Kremer, a veteran conservative organizer, has spearheaded cross-country bus trips to extol tea party talking points and deny the outcome of the 2020 election.
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Kremer → spearhead → election
Composed of Kremer, her husband, her daughter and her dog, Lovie — “He’s been with me the entire trip,” Kremer said — along with staffers and security guards, the Humans First squad has made more than 35 stops in communities across the country over the past five weeks.
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squad → compose → weeks
The trip culminated in Monday’s visits to Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta and Nvidia — widely regarded as the world’s largest and most influential AI companies.
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trip → culminate → companies
Kremer and her daughter, Kylie Jane Kremer, fielded questions from reporters about the tour’s goals and its accomplishments.
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Kremer → field → goals
“I want Big Tech to actually include the American people and allow them to have a seat at the table,” said Kylie Jane, a senior adviser at Humans First.
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Jane → want → First
She highlighted the organization’s Data Center Policy, a 13-point charter that emphasizes community control over data center planning, rejects data centers’ role in increasing electricity prices and decries any use of American data centers for unconstitutional surveillance, among other issues.
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that → highlight → issues
“We’re not anti-AI, we’re not anti-tech, we’re not even anti-data center,” Kylie Jane said.
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Jane → ’re → ?
Instead, the team touts a proud populist message: AI development must prioritize Americans, and the historic infrastructure buildout must benefit the communities hosting data centers humming with billions of dollars of business.
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buildout → tout → business
Yet, during the monthlong tour, much of the nation’s AI discourse shifted dramatically from worries about data centers’ guzzling water to fears that the technology might wipe out billions of people — or the entire species — in the next decade.
uncertain
technology → shift → decade
Recent worries about such risks were catalyzed by former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon’s warning on X that leading AI companies are recklessly speeding toward technological disaster.
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companies → catalyze → disaster
Amy Kremer said AI’s potential existential threats had clearly struck a nerve with Middle America, with growing numbers of people at Humans First rallies bringing up AI’s risks to society beyond immediate data center impacts.
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numbers → say → impacts
“People across the country are definitely paying attention to the existential risk and what is coming out about that,” Kremer said.
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Kremer → pay → that
On Sunday, Kremer participated in a panel at a gathering of AI luminaries in nearby Berkeley, where she laid out the future of conservative AI approaches to mitigate such potential outcomes.
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she → participate → outcomes
Kremer said she vehemently disagreed with some of the conference’s participants about the idea that AI systems could ever be conscious or have a soul — a belief some Anthropic employees acknowledge as possible.
uncertain
employees → say → soul
“Personally, I think it’s demonic,” she said, looking toward the Anthropic headquarters.
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she → think → headquarters
“We are human beings, and we all have souls.
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we → have → souls
And you cannot put a soul in a machine.
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you → put → machine
Part of me feels sad for them that that’s how empty and soulless their lives are.”
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lives → feel → them
Anthropic didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Anthropic → respond → comment
Kremer and her cadre have found thousands of Americans fed up with large AI companies’ setting up data center projects under shady shell companies or under the protection of nondisclosure agreements.
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companies → find → agreements
She pointed to a tour stop in Jonesburg, Missouri, a small town in a county of 12,000 people.
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She → point → people
Google and Amazon have announced they will invest a combined $25 billion in data centers in the county over the coming years.
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they → announce → years
“That is a David-versus-Goliath story,” she said.
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she → say → Goliath
“How do you ever fight that alone?”
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you → fight → that
Kremer has received death threats, some from staunchly pro-AI people, her husband said.
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husband → receive → people
And sometimes the road has been too rough for the bus itself — one gravel road in Wakarusa, Kansas, proved impassable and forced the team to ask the owners of a nearby house whether they could hold their rally there instead of farther down the road.
uncertain
they → prove → road
“Word got to the people down the dirt road, and then all of a sudden, before you know it, here they come,” Kremer said.
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Kremer → get → it
They just kept coming, the cars and the people.
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They → keep → ?
It just warms your heart.”
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It → warm → heart
President Donald Trump has repeatedly embraced data centers and the AI buildout as an economic boon that must be embraced, referring to AI as a “golden goose.”
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that → embrace → goose
Kremer said she strongly disagrees with Trump about AI, pointing out that MAGA regulars don’t need to agree with him on every policy point.
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regulars → say → point
“He’s got a lot going on,” Kremer said, placing blame for misguided AI policy on the tech investors who use Trump’s attention to advance their anti-guardrail, pro-AI views.
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who → get → views
“I don’t want a data center in my backyard, and I don’t think President Trump wants a data center in his backyard, either,” she said.
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she → want → backyard
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
