The Backlash Against Data Centers

The Atlantic staff writer Josh Tyrangiel joined for a special edition of Washington Week With The Atlantic to discuss the future of AI.Courtesy of Washington Week With The AtlanticSeptember 5, 2026, 10:24 AM ET Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings, watch full episodes here, or listen to the weekly podcast here.On a special edition of Washington Week With The Atlantic, the Atlantic staff writer Josh Tyrangiel joined for a discussion about the future of AI and what, if anything, the U.S. government plans to do to address the rapid development of the technology.Across the country, massive data centers are being built, and they’re “landing themselves without a whole lot of conversation” in American towns, Tyrangiel said last night. “It’s natural that all the fears about AI—about it taking your jobs, about it rendering human beings obsolete, about the values it changes—all are focused on” these data centers, he argued. “And politicians have been incredibly late to wake up to the anger around AI.”“I don’t think people believe that they are going to partake in the wealth that comes from data centers in their community,” Tyrangiel continued. “Every community is going to make different choices, but what I’m sensing is that, particularly from Trump, the politics are out of line with where people are.”Watch Tyrangial’s full conversation with the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, here.