Anger is building against the tech bosses accelerating us towards a dystopian automated future.
Just like the constant, low-frequency hum emitted by data centres, there is a deep, suffocating bass drum shaking people to their core. The AI arms race is contributing, literally and metaphorically, to tremors that will become earthquakes of class struggle.
Pessimism
In the US, roughly half of Gen Z use generative AI at least once a week. Yet 31 percent of 14 to 29 year olds said it made them feel angry, up from 22 percent last year, according to a recent Gallup poll.
The percentage of respondents aged 14 to 29 who said they felt hopeful about AI has declined sharply in the last twelve months, down to 18 percent from 27.
Notably, while they felt it made them more productive and efficient, they were concerned about how the technology would affect their creativity and critical thinking skills. At work, only 15 percent said they saw AI as a net benefit.
Growing youth discontent over AI was made clear when students at multiple US universities jeered and booed executives who praised AI technology in graduation day speeches.
In the US, attitudes towards AI correspond closely to a class outlook. According to the polls, those most optimistic about AI are the ones earning more than $200,000 a year.
Anger has also been growing in the UK. In June, more than 200 people attended a public meeting to oppose a data centre near Auchtertool village in Fife. Another campaign has been launched to halt a similar development in the Borders. The Scottish Government has been considering a temporary moratorium on new data centre planning applications in Scotland, largely due to protests over the environmental impacts. Meanwhile, in London, approved plans for a new data centre near Brick Lane – sited for its proximity to the City of London to enable faster financial transactions – have been met with immediate protests from the local community.
Financial mirage
But why are young people so angry about AI? After all, isn’t it going to free up our time, grow the economy, and revolutionise industries from medicine to education? The IMF has called it the fourth industrial revolution. Shouldn’t young people be grateful for the Elon Musks of the world?
AI certainly has potential to improve our lives. But not under capitalism, which squanders the possibilities.
Instead, the most immediate consequence of AI has been a massive concentration of speculative capital driving an historic stock market bubble. Trillions of dollars are being invested in the stock market and vast data centres, but 95 percent of companies have yet to see a return on their AI investments.
All that money, desperately needed elsewhere in the economy, is being wasted inflating a speculative bubble that is making a few tech executives incomprehensibly rich. The bubble is estimated to be 17 times larger than the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s. It has sucked in pension funds and ordinary people’s savings. When it bursts the economic pain will be felt by millions.
The financial firepower needed to participate in the AI arms race is concentrated in very few hands – most of which are in the USA. To attract even a small amount of the trillions sloshing around the tech sector today, British companies and the UK government are prostrating themselves before the American capitalists.
Take Scotland for example. The government has offered a £500 million fund for Scottish tech companies, designed to make them more attractive to US firms looking for partnerships and acquisitions. This is money that could have been spent on the NHS, but is instead being spent subsidising US capitalism.
Meanwhile, local infrastructure is being repurposed for international tech giants. DataVita – the largest data centre operator in Scotland – is partnering with the US company CoreWeave for a £1.5 billion investment in AI infrastructure, believed to be one of the largest technology investments ever made in Scotland.
This Scottish project is part of the ‘AI Growth Zone’ initiative that the UK government has invested £8 billion into. This is a significant chunk of the British state budget, equivalent to the money raised each year by freezing income tax thresholds. We are paying higher taxes to be gifted as tribute to US tech corporations, caught up in the speculative frenzy.
Painful though this is for us, £8 billion is still nothing compared to the trillions being invested globally. For all the pain, the UK still lags dramatically behind in the AI arms race.
More productive or more exploited?
All this investment is being justified by the UK and Scottish governments on the grounds that AI will deliver improved labour productivity and lead to that elusive economic growth. So far, there’s very little evidence of that.
A study conducted by MIT found that for every large leap in AI utility, only a very small portion of human work can actually be completely replaced. This is not the productivity miracle we were promised.
The capitalist class itself is sounding the alarm at this seeming lack of economic boost from AI. These MIT findings landed at a time when Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi revealed the company had blown through its entire AI budget for 2026 in one quarter, without much to show for it in productivity terms. And consequently, Uber is planning to switch much of its AI use to lower-cost models, reserving frontier tools for special cases.
In fact, while almost 60 percent of company bosses now insist that workers use AI tools, workers are pointing out that it is actually reducing productivity and forcing workers to work harder.
On Reddit, users complain:
“It’s insane how many companies come to us, already paying for a tool like ChatGPT or Dust, and asking how they can use it to improve their efficiency. We genuinely have to spend time brainstorming to find the least idiotic implementation for them and usually it’s still pretty goddamn idiotic.”
“My job is currently telling us to talk to ChatGPT and spend time with it so it can chat like us and become an extension of who we are and our work… Basically AI clones. They’ve forced 8 hours of AI trainings and countless lunch and learns but no one wants to answer me about what happens once I leave the company. What happens to MY AI clone then? They get to use it??? So when I leave this thing can still act like me? Write emails like me? No thanks. I’ve not been drinking the Kool-Aid.”
“As an engineer, they constantly push us to use AI to summarize data and draw conclusions, but insist that we are still responsible for the accuracy of our work. HOW THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO VALIDATE THAT THE AI IS MAKING CORRECT CALCULATIONS WITHOUT DOING THE WORK OURSELVES, AT WHICH POINT WHATS THE POINT OF USING AI?!?”
What’s clear from these anecdotes is that, despite the lack of productivity gains, many workers still fear that their jobs are under threat. People worry that they are being forced to train the very AI intended to replace them in the future.
With one million young people currently unemployed in the UK, this anxiety over joblessness hangs around the necks of an entire generation.
AI’s dark satanic mills
The explosion in AI infrastructure is placing a huge strain on local environments and public infrastructure. The UK currently hosts nearly a quarter of Europe’s AI data centres,- more than China. This is set to increase significantly.
Work on the UK’s biggest project – a £10 billion data centre near Newcastle for US wealth management firm Blackstone Group – is due to begin in 2031. It involves ten giant buildings covering more than half a million square metres, the size of several large shopping centres. Another major AI data centre in Wales is slated for the site of a former steelworks.
The UK’s National Energy System Operator has actively encouraged developers to build in Scotland to take advantage of its higher proportion of renewable energy and fewer grid constraints.
Accordingly, there are at least 18 data warehouse projects currently seeking planning permission in Scotland, with a further six in the pipeline, including an ‘AI Growth Zone’ in Lanarkshire, near Glasgow.
The sheer scale of these projects threatens to overwhelm the local grid. Collectively, the planned Scottish data centres will use roughly 6.2 gigawatts of power, which is one-and-a-half times more than the entire country uses in the depths of winter.
In the rural 600-person village of Auchtertool, Fife, developers have proposed an AI data centre spanning an area the size of 50 football pitches. This single facility is projected to consume enough electricity to power more than half the households in Scotland.
The UK and Scottish government claim such development will be done in a ‘green’ way. This is rubbish.
A data centre in Edinburgh recently argued it was a “green data centre” in its submissions to local authorities, despite the fact that its plans included 200 diesel backup generators – the environmental equivalent of 100,000 idling cars.
The demands by tech companies are triggering a severe crisis across the wider energy sector. Officials have now admitted that Britain’s data centre boom could use 40 percent more electricity than initially thought.
More than 100 data centres are currently seeking grid connections for 50 gigawatts of capacity – more than the peak demand of the entirety of Britain on a typical day. Lack of investment in Britain’s creaking electricity grid means this is impossible. The result is that these 100 new UK data centres are instead planning to burn gas, with some potentially doing so permanently.
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We can look to Ireland to see what this means for ordinary workers. Over the Irish Sea, dozens of massive data centres are chewing through more electricity than all the urban homes in the country, totally outstripping renewable energy production.
Consequently, the average Irish household paid an estimated 360 euros ($589) in additional electricity costs between 2015 and 2023 due to the sheer intensity of data centres on the Single Electricity Market grid. In the UK, this could force the poorest households to spend an estimated 6 to 8 percent of their income purely on energy.
Beyond electricity, in the US, AI data centers are projected to consume between 4.2 billion and 6.6 billion cubic meters of water annually by 2027, making them one of the top 10 industrial water users.
These data centres also affect our quality of life. Residents of America’s so-called ‘Data Centre Alley’ in Virginia report that the continuous 24/7 operation of cooling systems, air chillers, and backup generators produces a persistent, low-frequency industrial drone.
The constant humming and buzzing has driven away wildlife, with locals lamenting that “there are no birds around here anymore.”
Noise levels range between 40 and 59 decibels. While these levels are technically quieter than a close conversation, they sit directly within the thresholds that can disrupt sleep, concentration, work, and exercise.
Energy and water are being redirected to feed data centers. They are pumping out noise pollution. This takes a huge toll on the environment, and the engineered scarcity of natural resources means workers must ultimately pay the price through their household bills.
The tech bosses don’t care about workers or the environment – they’re too caught up in the speculative frenzy, chasing fictional profits at our expense. We have been given no choice and no say in this massive change to our lives. In a matter of just a few years we’ve been swamped by this tech tidal wave.
Alienation
Beyond the questions of inequality, exploitation, joblessness, and environmental harm, there is a deeper, more pervasive sense of anger among young people towards AI. There’s a feeling that this technology is numbing our brains. It’s a feeling of intense alienation.
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According to some research, the growing reliance on AI is leading to a process known as cognitive offloading, which can lead to the structural atrophy of critical thinking skills.
MIT researchers found that participants who relied on AI exhibited up to 55 percent less brain activity, weaker brain connectivity, and a poorer ability to recall information. Furthermore, this automated assistance can create a long-term dependency.
It is also deeply affecting our interpersonal relations. One study showed that nearly 1 in 5 US adolescents use AI chatbots for mental health advice when feeling stressed, sad, or angry. The US-based Center for Democracy and Technology has recently reported that 19 percent of teenagers know someone in a relationship with an AI chatbot.
The same survey found over half of boys thought AI relationships were easier because they could control the conversation, and over a third admitted they preferred speaking to AI chatbots over family and friends.
This shifting dynamic is happening alongside an integration of AI into educational institutions, as the same study revealed that 85 percent of teachers and 86 percent of students report using AI in the classroom in the last year.
AI is rapidly changing the nature of our most basic relationships: between teacher and student, and between ourselves and our loved ones.
Such changes have always gone hand-in-hand with technological and scientific development – from mobile phones to the internet. But the speed of the change we are experiencing today, and above all the fact that it is being driven by shadowy billionaire tech titans and market forces outside of our control, is what is driving the sense of alienation to new heights.
In fact, AI is not the cause but a symptom of the warping and distortion of the human condition within class society. The truth is that this degradation of human connections is not unique to this fourth industrial revolution. It is the condition of capitalism itself.
Luddism
The anger, and alienation associated with AI is giving rise to opposition. Beyond booing tech executives and protesting individual data centres, there are some people generalising this into hostility against technological development itself.
Organisations in the USA such as the Luddite Club, and the Lamp Club founded in Brooklyn are growing rapidly. The former boasts twenty chapters at US universities and three internationally.
The term ‘Luddite’ today is synonymous with a backward-thinking person – someone who is pessimistic about technology. But the real history of the Luddites of early 19th century Britain is one of revolutionary class struggle.
They were workers who hit back at exploitative bosses by destroying their machines and property. Their methods were simple and direct, reflecting the primitive stage of the class struggle. They aimed not only for the destruction of property, but to overthrow the political class responsible for defending their slavery, their appeals read:
“Generous countrymen. You are requested to come forward with arms and help the Redressers to redress their Wrongs and shake off the hateful Yoke of a Silly Old Man George III, and his Son more silly and their Rogueish Ministers, all Nobles and Tyrants must be brought down.”
This Luddism was not born of a lack of understanding or backwardness, but from the lack of control workers had over the pace and use of technology.
Today this manifests in around a third of workers admitting that they actively sabotage their companies AI strategy.
During the first Industrial Revolution, the transition from traditional craftsmanship to manufacturing took place over many years. Today, it happens in a matter of weeks and months due to the pace of the development of AI. The impact on consciousness for millions of dislocated and alienated workers is even greater.
Today’s tech CEOs remind us of the tyrannical industrialists of nineteenth century Britain. They cheerfully threaten us that the bosses don’t need humans; that our jobs, livelihoods, and even lives can be thrown on the scrapheap, and it won’t matter one bit to the rich and powerful.
This is no exaggeration. Chad Jones, an economist working with Anthropic, ran the numbers and concluded that a 33 percent reduction in the human population is acceptable to make way for AI.
“NO DATA CENTERS”
The brewing anger is turning into violence. In April, someone shot thirteen rounds at an Indianapolis councilman’s house and left a note under his doormat: “NO DATA CENTERS”.
A Molotov cocktail was thrown at Sam Altman’s home, followed by an attempt to burn down Open AI HQ. Social media posts applauding the attack racked up thousands of likes, with one commenter writing, “I hope that Molotov is okay!”
Also in April, an Italian man was arrested for plotting a series of anti-tech attacks that took inspiration from the Unambomber Ted Kaczynski – who targeted individuals and institutions associated with technology and industry. Similarly, two self-described ‘ecofascists’ who carried out an islamophobic attack in San Diego last month cited “AI slop” and JD Vance’s ties to Palantir as motivations in their manifesto.
Anti-AI sentiment is not isolated, and is being combined with a general anti-rich, anti-capitalist mood in society. A survey of 2,352 security chiefs at large and medium-sized companies in 31 countries, found increasing threats of violence, with the US technology sector the worst affected since the killing of UnitedHealthcare boss Brian Thompson.
Allied Chief Executive Steve Jones said:
“Since then, the number of executives being protected has doubled. In the first six months of this year, we performed five times more assessments than in any previous full fiscal year.”
42 percent reported a significant increase in threats of violence against company executives, rising to 66 percent for US-based technology companies.
In the absence of a clear political analysis or expression of the anger against AI, we are seeing violence and desperation in response to technological advancement – an absurd contradiction for which capitalist social relations are responsible.
Revolution
Karl Marx compared revolution to a mole burrowing beneath the surface of society. Leon Trotsky described it as the “molecular process of revolution”. These metaphors are trying to explain how an accumulation of small movements or pressures can remain hidden from view, but at a certain point force themselves into the open in a dramatic way.
This is the process taking place in the consciousness of millions of young people as a result of declining living standards, war, political chaos, and also the development of artificial intelligence, among other things.
We are in the early stages of this molecular process but it should surprise no one if we see more protests, or even more violence, directed against tech companies in the coming period. This will not be the solution to the problem, but an inevitable symptom.
Young people know the huge potential that AI contains. Two years ago, Joanna Maciejewska wrote a now-viral tweet:
“You know what the biggest problem with pushing all-things-AI is? Wrong direction. I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.”
You know what the biggest problem with pushing all-things-AI is? Wrong direction.
I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.— Joanna Maciejewska (@AuthorJMac) March 29, 2024
This sentiment has become a rallying cry for young people who want to be liberated by this technology. We do not want to destroy it, but use it to its full potential.
This cannot be achieved under capitalism. So our aim must be to liberate this technology from the constraints of the capitalist system, and take it out of the hands of tech bosses. Instead of using it to pursue profit at any cost, we could use it for the development of humanity.
This is part of the broader fight against capitalism as a whole. We need to connect with the widespread anger and protests against AI and direct it, not against this or that technology, but against the capitalist system of social relations and the tech oligarchs and politicians who support it.
