00:00 Speaker A
the journal’s reporting that the American rebellion against AI is gaining steam, they say. Uh, protests, blocked data centers, politicians running against the great AI project. What do you make of it?
00:15 Speaker B
We’ve seen it even over the weekend, all these graduation speeches mentioning AI, mentioning the momentum behind AI, Google former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, I believe saying in his speech, his commencement commencement speech that, you know, embrace AI, this is the new forefront, this is the new technology, really encouraging these new graduates to adopt this. And he got met with booze.
00:41 Speaker B
I mean, this is sort of a broader landscape on how exactly everyone’s sort of saying, hey, it’s really important to adopt it, but at the same time, there’s clearly a base here who is completely against it. and I think that’s a hurdle that they’ll have to get over here.
00:54 Speaker A
I think a lot, I think a lot of it is electricity. I think it’s a lot of people looking at their
00:57 Speaker B
Oh, for the upcoming midterm elections, absolutely.
01:01 Speaker A
Yeah, looking at their power bills. I do think there are such huge implications because the US leads the way in AI, but China wants to. So, if you were to give up that edge and you were to imagine a world where Beijing plays point on AI and we don’t, wow, there’s a lot of big ripple effects and dominoes.
01:21 Speaker B
Right. And and keep in mind the video earnings are out tomorrow and we’re expecting to hear maybe a little bit more color on, you know, what Jensen Wong’s trip to Beijing with the president was like and what exactly he heard on the ground there.
01:34 Speaker A
Well, Trump picked him up in Alaska on the way there, and that’s when that’s when the rumor started. Maybe there would be a big deal. Not so fast.
01:37 Speaker B
Wasn’t that insane?
01:40 Speaker B
Because initially there was reports that he wasn’t invited, but apparently he was and and and and um and when you think about though that local opposition, specifically that these data center projects are getting at, the report has said specifically that uh local opposition blocked or delayed about 48 projects valued at $156 billion. and this was last year in 2025. Now in 2026, all the momentum’s there. All the build outs are currently into play. And so just how many local projects are being opposed right now, and how much local concern is that raising, especially in areas like maybe Pennsylvania or Virginia where these data center builders are really happening. That that was a good point.
