Unpopular take: Governor Mills vetoed the moratorium on data centers in Maine. I think that's the right move, but not for the reasons she did it. Here is why.
AI is here. You may not like that, but it's being forced on us. I say that as someone who spends many hours each day working with AI.
If someone had asked me ten years ago whether we should develop artificial intelligence, my vote would have been yes, because it has the capacity to solve problems we believe are not solvable. But implementation should be slow, so that society and the planet have a chance to keep pace, and so that it stays focused on the problems that, if solved, would help all of humanity and this planet.
Unfortunately, no one asked me. Or you. Or us. That's the real problem here.
If AI bothers you, if you think it's wrong for society and for the planet, start by overturning Citizens United. Then get rid of billionaires. Then focus all of your efforts on supporting true democracy: democracy where we are asked important questions, like whether AI should be created.
Right now, as we speak, people who believe freedom and democracy are incompatible are running the show on AI. They must be removed.
Don't bury your head in the sand on this. Or if you do, at least know that it will not stop data centers or AI, because AI and data centers have already been decided on. All that head-in-the-sand will do is push data centers into places that have no ability to say no to them: underdeveloped countries, probably Greenland if Trump steals it, and struggling regions in developed countries will be forced to take them, so that this forced transition can proceed and the masses here can get wired to AI and be "more productive." That's wrong.
We must hold the people who decided it wasn't worth asking us about AI accountable, and prevent them from making other choices like this for us. And we must hold ourselves accountable for allowing these choices to be made without our approval, by sharing in the burden of data centers.