You tell everyone AI is going to put them out of a job and then you’re surprised when working class communities say “no, please leave” when folks want to build a data center in their back yard.
There are times when Silicon Valley looks out of touch and there are times when Silicon Valley just looks like idiots with hubris. This is more the later.
There are many surveys which make it clear, this is not the reason. They are straightforwardly (right or wrong) protesting the physical installations, their water and electricity use, and other hard-to-quantify vibes like radiation and noise (similar to 5g protests).
They know very little about the job market impact of AI, and are mostly retired so they don't care anyway.
“Mostly retired” is a red herring. Protests of all kinds are always full of retirees. They can speak up for the community while the rest of us have to go to work.
Thinking that the folks objecting are mostly grumpy retired people clueless about markets isn’t helping the perception that Silicon Valley is grossly out of touch with reality.
The protestors are mostly retired, and are not familiar (or most often, are actively skeptical of) the job market impact. These are just the facts, let's please not disagree on things where it is so easy to verify the ground truth.
In fact, the majority of people cite the data centers as (1) "AI slop machines", (2) a bubble that will burst leaving a data center behind or (3) surveillance factories. Very few think they will produce useful output. This is completely at odds with the idea they will displace the job market.
There are times when Silicon Valley looks out of touch and there are times when Silicon Valley just looks like idiots with hubris. This is more the later.