If you want a barometer of American political concerns you could do worse than checking what spam accounts are turning into AI-generated slop on Facebook. There are now hundreds of pages with names like \u201cLife in Texas,” \u201cHistory of Wisconsin,\u201d and \u201cLife Is Idaho” churning out dozens of AI-generated images playing into anti-data center sentiment across the country.One of the most ubiquitous styles of anti-data center slop I\u2019ve seen is a vast tract of farm land with a message like \u201cnot worth giving up an inch of this to a data center\u201d mowed into it. The image is tailored to fit the target audience in each state. \u201cOur great lakes. Our forests. Our communities. Our future,\u201d said the Michigan version in the field surrounded by a massive lake and a water tower that helpfully read \u201cMichigan.\u201d The Kentucky version repeated the message but added \u201cbluegrass, bourbon, and horses. Kentucky\u201d to the mowed grass.<\/p>\n
The caption of the post explained that a rural farmer in the state mowed the letters into their field as a form of protest against proposed data centers. There are hundreds of these pages, all themed around life in individual states, sharing similar versions of the same images. \u201cWow. According to FB, every farmer in every state has done this. Enough with the AI,\u201d said a comment below one of the images on the \u201cLife in Kentucky\u201d Facebook page.People hate data centers. Local and state communities around the country are passing moratoriums on their construction. Data centers are noisy and their neighbors have pressing concerns about water use, increased electricity bills, and the quality of the jobs developers are promising to create. Some areas, like Ypsilanti Township where the University of Michigan is planning a large data center, are even worried about becoming targets in future wars. These anxieties are now the focus of AI spam farms on Facebook.\u00a0This is the same algorithmically boosted \u201cshrimp Jesus\u201d style AI spam scheme we\u2019ve reported on before. There are people, some of them in foreign countries, who churn out hundreds of AI-generated images across multiple pages to engage users and turn a profit on ads and links. It\u2019s impossible to know who, exactly, is putting up all these state-themed anti-AI pages. I reached out to several of the pages through Facebook Messenger but got no response. Many of the pages provide the same contact email but I didn\u2019t receive a response when I contacted it.What\u2019s clear is that the people who study American culture and profit from selling it back to Americans via Facebook have figured out there\u2019s profit in sharing content about how much we hate data centers. Many of the images I found had been liked thousands of times and shared hundreds more. Comments under the slop ranged from staunch support of the anti-data center movement to anger that AI housed in a data center had been used to create anti-data center propaganda.Like all AI slop, these Facebook pages aren\u2019t great with the facts. The \u201cFans of Alabama Crimson Tide\u201d shared an AI-generated image of a woman standing in farmland at sunset. The Alabama flag rippled in the wind behind her. \u201cAn Alabama mother and daughter turned down $26 million to prevent their 1,200 acre farm from being converted into an AI data center,\u201d the caption said. The Facebook post didn\u2019t name the woman or provide details but she\u2019s real and her name is Delsia Bare and the story is mostly true. She and her mother turned down a $26 million dollar offer to build a data center on their farmland. The data center would have been 2,000 acres not 1,200. Also, this all happened in Kentucky, not Alabama.An AI spammer took Bare\u2019s story and her image, which appeared to come from local news coverage of her case, then repurposed it as a piece of anti-AI content to generate engagement from football fans in a different state. \u201cWhether you agree with the decision or not, one thing is undeniable \u2014 standing firm against a $26 million offer takes incredible conviction. Alabama pride runs deep, and this story is another reminder that for many families, their land is more than property\u2026 it\u2019s home,\u201d said the caption on the Facebook page. As of this writing, the post had generated 56 likes and been shared 5 times.\u201cThis was in Kentucky wasn\u2019t it?\u201d said a comment in the replies.The people organizing against data centers have noticed the tide of slop. \u201cAcross the country, we\u2019re hearing from local officials in conservative and liberal areas that their community can finally unite behind one thing\u2014opposing the expansion of data centers,\u201d Michael Whitesides, deputy communications director of Local Progress, a nonprofit that works with election officials at the local level, told 404 Media.\u201cAI slop usually followed a very predictable pattern. They\u2019re either designed to provoke intense reactions to play to a very middle of the road audience. The fact that Facebook content farms have switched to producing AI-generated images opposing data centers shows just how universal and uncontroversial this opposition is,\u201d Whitesides added. \u201cThe irony shouldn\u2019t be lost that said images are being created with the help of data centers, but all the more underscores what local elected officials here all across the country\u2014no one wants these.\u201dThat\u2019s not entirely true. There\u2019s a lot of billionaires, contacts, and other monied interests in America that are bullish on data centers. Construction of these massive computer warehouses is driving the American economy. Think tanks like Brookings have published massive studies calling the build out a \u201cgold rush.\u201dBut the people who live in the communities where data centers are going up do not want them. They\u2019re noisy, drive up the costs of electricity and water for neighbors, and disrupt the beauty of the natural landscape. Local, state, and national resistance to the construction of the data centers is building and it seems to have caught some of the boosters and investors by surprise.A counter-narrative to the backlash is building. American law enforcement is warning about anti-tech extremism centered around the data center resistance movement. A Congressional intelligence agency is tracking \u201crecent threats and attacks likely linked to grievances concerning data centers,\u201d according to reporting from Ken Klippenstein. Billionaire Canadian TV Star Kevin O\u2019Leary, shocked by opposition to his $70 billion data center in Utah, is laying the blame on China.We uncovered something far bigger than I ever expected. After seeing coordinated false attacks against the Utah data center project, we brought in an advanced data science team to trace where the content was coming from and the results were shocking. What we found led back to\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/O870aqpjKr\u2014 Kevin O’Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) May 25, 2026
\n\u201cThere\u2019s a war going on, I guess a PR war or whatever you want to call it,\u201d O\u2019Leary said in a recent video posted to X.\u201cIs what you\u2019re suggesting that these entities are taking funds from the Chinese Communist Party and using those funds to run a digital blackmail campaign against your project?\u201d someone off camera asked O\u2019Leary.\u201cI\u2019m not suggesting it, it\u2019s an irrefutable fact,\u2019 O\u2019Leary said.Data centers are going to be one of the major political issues in America for the next few election cycles. Battle lines are being drawn and narratives are taking shape. And in the middle of it all are people using AI to do what it does best: boiling the human experience down into cheap slop so it can be served back to us.Another version of the Bare story got the facts correct, but removed her and her family from the picture. \u201cFamily rejects $26 million offer for their Kentucky land amid AI data center plan. A clash between tradition and technology,\u201d text said above an AI-generated image of a middle aged couple in denim with dirty blond hair and Taylor Sheridan-TV show good looks. This couple that does not exist stares into the camera, clutching two children tight.Bare, the real person who rejected the $26 million buyout, is not mentioned or pictured.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"