Texas, Pennsylvania and now Ohio. This is a powder keg and has the potential to unwind 200-300 basis points of annual GDP if it metastasizes. How did it get this bad? The collective leadership of frontier AI has failed miserably in doing the basics: 1. Paint a positive picture of what is possible with AI. Instead of spilling the ink on the glass half full, stories abound of pearl clutching, catastrophizing or arcane technical jargon that, together, breed mistrust, fear and skepticism. 2. Visibly and disproportionately enrich the local communities AI data centers operate in. Tell these stories with a megaphone and have local leaders lead with the financial proof so it’s irrefutable. 3. Stop infighting and stop trying to influence the government or trick them because of the asymmetric knowledge the industry has relative to outsiders and observers. This further makes it seem like a shady money grab to many bystanders. Data centers have unfortunately become THE symbolic representation of the asymmetric upside for a very narrow tech elite and a class that are untrustworthy. Inasmuch, the safer bet may be that the pushback and resistance grows…