How backlash against data centres could shape the US midterm elections

A year ago, a longtime US senator was not thinking much about data centres. ​​

Now, according to one of his advisers, he is having regular meetings with staff to track their impact and working on new legislation aimed at curbing their rapid expansion across the country.

"This happens sometimes, something starts slow and then it goes fast", the senior policy adviser to the Democratic senator told the BBC. The person spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not permitted to speak to the press.

The 180-degree turn in this senator's attention was driven almost entirely by a growing wave of public backlash that has seen politicians across the country scramble to keep up. Public sentiment has turned against the expansion of data centres, the large warehouses that store processing power needed for internet activity.

Packed with rows and rows of computer chips, sometimes seven-feet high, data centres have turned into more than infrastructure for the internet. They are now the physical embodiment of the recent and explosive growth of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and the varied fears people associate with it.

"I don't want to be the guinea pig for this," Indiana resident Angelita Soriano told the BBC.

A backlash over data centres is another threat to the AI juggernaut

A new Amazon data centre is being built directly across the street from her home. When complete, the 26-building structure will take up more than a square mile in her neighbourhood and maintain 782 diesel-powered generators.