Sam Altman: 'People hate data centers—right now, at least. People are pretty negative on AI'

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has commented on the increasing public negativity towards data centers and artificial intelligence, stating, "Clearly, people hate data centres—right now, at least. People are pretty negative on AI." This sentiment was shared in a recent interview with Time, where Altman reflected on the "painful personal experience" of the past year, which included an incident at his home.

Despite this public perception, OpenAI is continuing its significant investment in AI infrastructure, with plans to spend an additional $50 million this year on compute capacity. Sachin Katti, co-lead of OpenAI's compute strategy, noted that earlier investments proved "very prescient" and that the company is still in need of more compute power.

The article highlights tangible reasons for public opposition, referencing a class-action lawsuit filed by Wisconsin residents against Microsoft earlier this year due to alleged "unreasonable and excessive noise" from a data center. Another example cited is an environmental dispute over air quality involving Elon Musk's Colossus data center in South Memphis last year. Beyond local impacts like rising power costs, broader environmental concerns are mentioned, with one report suggesting that gas power projects for just 11 US data centers could emit more greenhouse gases than entire countries.

Altman maintains confidence in the profitability of OpenAI's planned compute infrastructure, suggesting that if its machine-learning products don't generate sufficient revenue, renting out compute capacity remains a viable option.