Speakers promoting artificial intelligence are facing boos at universities, voters are rebelling against data centers, and even Trump administration officials are retreating as a backlash against AI accelerates across the United States. The rapid spread of emerging technology is causing early enthusiasm to give way to deep concerns about unemployment, rising costs, misinformation, and security.
Christabel Randolph, acting executive director at the Center for AI and Digital Policy, a Washington-based think tank, said, 'People are thinking about what their future is going to look like. That existential fear is a very animating anxiety.'
A recent Gallup poll found that 71 percent of Americans oppose local AI data centers, compared with 53 percent who oppose nearby nuclear plants. According to opinion polling cited by the Semafor news outlet, 70 percent of Americans think AI is moving too fast, over 50 percent have negative views of it, and only 18 percent of young people feel hopeful about it.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt experienced this backlash firsthand on May 19, 2026, when he delivered a graduation speech at the University of Arizona. Wearing a black academic gown and a tassel-topped cap, Schmidt urged students not to fear the AI-fueled technological transformation that he said will 'touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship you have.' Instead of clapping, his speech prompted loud boos.
With the U.S. economy battered by stubborn inflation and the tech industry seeing AI-fuelled layoffs, young Americans fear their costly university degrees, many paid for with large student loans, will be rendered useless by AI, leaving them without jobs and pay.
When Scott Borchetta, CEO of Big Machine Records, tried to tell Middle Tennessee State University graduates to embrace inevitable change, he too got a hostile reception. 'You can hear me now or you can pay me later,' he quipped. 'Do something about it, it's a tool, make it work for you.' Booing followed.
AI expansion is driving a massive build-out of data centers, which consume large amounts of electricity and can raise utility costs. This infrastructure is now becoming a political flashpoint, with local officials supporting AI projects suffering losses at the ballot box in recent months. Some discontent has spilled into violence. Last month, a young man threw a Molotov cocktail at the California home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. In a separate incident, a city council member in Indiana had his door struck by gunfire after he expressed support for a data center construction project. A note the attackers left under his doormat read 'No Data Centers.'
Even President Donald Trump, who signed an executive order curbing states' ability to regulate AI in December 2025, has begun to urge caution over AI development. The growing unease signals a significant shift in public sentiment, as early excitement about AI's potential gives way to existential fear about its impact on society.
