Voters backed limits on data centers in at least 38 places and gave Democrats both houses of Congress. Whether lawmakers can turn that into AI rules is now the test.
Voters on Tuesday gave Democrats control of both houses of Congress, and part of the message was unease about AI and data centers. Voters approved bans or limits on data centers in at least 38 places. Now Congress has to decide whether it can turn that anger into an actual law.
In Texas, Gina Hinojosa unseated Gov. Greg Abbott after campaigning for an immediate pause on new data centers. In Ohio, Sherrod Brown beat Sen. Jon Husted, calling him "the face of data centers." Husted had recruited the facilities and given them tax breaks as lieutenant governor. Pro-AI groups that spend money on elections mostly went nowhere. Elon Musk spent nearly half a billion dollars this cycle and got almost nothing in return.
Rep. Greg Casar called the results an "early tremor of a much bigger AI earthquake." Sen. Ed Markey joked that Democrats would issue so many subpoenas they would need new forests. Shakeel Hashim of Transformer predicted that a bill regulating frontier models, meaning the most powerful AI systems, will pass in the first months of 2027. He thinks President Trump might even sign it. That is one writer's forecast, not a plan.
Platformer's column warns that AI could follow the path social media took. Starting in 2018, Congress spent about four years angry at those companies. Mark Zuckerberg testified, and an antitrust group produced a 450-page report. The result was a TikTok ban that no one enforced. There is still no comprehensive privacy law, no Section 230 reform and no new antitrust law.
Courts and states filled the gap. Juries in Los Angeles and New Mexico accepted the argument that addictive design can cause harm. State attorneys general won a settlement from Meta worth roughly $17 billion.
The column says a data center ban is not simple, because labs could move to other states or countries. Time is also short. Most industry leaders believe hugely powerful AI may arrive within two years. The first thing to watch is whether lawmakers agree on what problem they are solving. With social media, no one agreed on what "safe" meant. The column lists three things to watch from January. The text provided covers only that first one.
The columnist notes that his fiancé works at Anthropic, an AI company.
Watch what the new Congress does on AI and data centers starting in January, and whether it agrees on the problem before it writes a bill.
A Kuala Lumpur firm now sells a SGD 1,500 check of what ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google say about a named executive, after its founder's own test found mix-ups.
Read more: New Audit Checks What AI Chatbots Say About Business LeadersA former Nvidia product manager has started Udu Technologies to let African startups and institutions rent AI computing power instead of buying it.
Read more: Ex-Nvidia engineer starts company to bring AI computing power to AfricaEA has re-released 25 classic PC games at a discount until November 19, and Bethesda has finally given The Elder Scrolls VI a subtitle: Sentinel.
Read more: EA brings 25 classic PC games back, and Elder Scrolls VI gets a name
