Major AI executives reject coordinated slowdown as public opposition to data centers hits 61%.
Published
Left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders and far-right advisor Steve Bannon issued a rare joint warning about AI dangers at a Future of Life Institute conference in Washington, marking an unusual political alliance on technology regulation. Their comments came as top tech executives pushed back against safety proposals. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg explicitly distanced themselves from slowdown efforts championed by OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX leaders, with Zuckerberg taking direct aim at Anthropic's safety-focused position. The divide reflects deeper geopolitical tensions: a separate Financial Times analysis noted that US-China technological rivalry complicates international agreement on managing potentially existential AI risks. Public sentiment adds pressure from an unexpected direction — a New York Times/Siena College poll of 1,503 likely voters found 61% oppose construction of data centers to power AI technology, signaling growing local resistance to the infrastructure demands of advanced AI systems. Google meanwhile faces separate legal exposure as courts examine whether its AI Overviews feature can defame individuals, adding another regulatory front to the sector's challenges.
Sources: 1.