![\"2025](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ai-backlash-2025.jpg\")
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\t\t\tIllustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins \/ Futurism. Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
For the tech of the future, generative AI sure is making a lot of enemies in a very short time.<\/p>\n
If 2023 was the year of AI\u2019s awakening and 2024 the year of its frantic adoption, then it\u2019s safe to say 2025 will be remembered as the year it all came crashing back down to reality. From boardrooms<\/a> to classrooms<\/a>, from game studios<\/a> to Senate committees<\/a>, this will be the year many remember as the one when AI finally wore out its welcome.<\/p>\n For many small towns throughout the US, the AI boom has come wafting in on a cloud of noxious smog that critics say is leading to to increased cancer risk<\/a> and hostile takeovers<\/a> of local infrastructure, not to mention skyrocketing electricity bills<\/a>. That being the case, it\u2019s no surprise a huge number of rural communities have spent the year organizing and agitating<\/a> to shut down the tech industry\u2019s data center projects wherever they pop up.<\/p>\n Indeed, from the Great Lakes<\/a> to the Pacific Northwest<\/a>, it seems the one thing people can agree on is that the data centers powering the AI gold rush<\/a> make horrible neighbors.<\/p>\n Beyond the data centers, AI is helping corporations increase the rate at which they exploit workers \u2014 both on the job<\/a> and at home. Back in spring, for example, Visa announced plans to let AI agents loose<\/a> on customers\u2019 financial information, one of many companies<\/a> to experiment with a pivot to AI customer service.<\/p>\n Of course, most Americans would rather bash their heads against the wall then talk to an AI customer service agent \u2014 not that there\u2019s much of a difference, they\u2019d argue \u2014 as consumer sentiment surveys<\/a> show. The hatred is so palpable that Americans have even taken to accusing human customer service agents<\/a> of being AI when they don\u2019t get their way.<\/p>\n Corporate big wigs aren\u2019t the only ones getting fat off the AI boom, to be sure. With newfound tools to pump out ultra-realistic content at an industrial scale, Facebook scammers<\/a>, art forgers<\/a>, and racist influencers<\/a> are also getting in on the fun.<\/p>\n This kind of wild west approach has fueled a rise in protest movements like Pause AI, a group calling for a halt of AI development until we can figure out what the hell is going on. 2025 even gave us our first anti-AI hunger strikes, spontaneous protests by activists in San Francisco<\/a> and London<\/a>. Others have risen up against AI-powered surveillance dragnets<\/a> powered by companies like Flock Safety.<\/p>\n Amidst the outcry, a handful of politicians in the US seem to have taken notice. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, for example, recently kicked off a campaign<\/a> calling for a pause on the \u201cunregulated sprint to develop and deploy AI.\u201d He\u2019s joined in his crusade by New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a>, who recently blasted Republican legislators for their attempts to pass a 10-year ban on state regulation of AI<\/a>.<\/p>\n Though the two progressive lawmakers might not have much support from their Democratic colleagues<\/a>, they\u2019re joined by divisive right-wing figures like Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who have defied their own Republican party in voicing opposition to AI initiatives.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not buying the narrative that they are trying to sell us on this,\u201d DeSantis said at a recent roundtable on AI, according to the <\/a>Washington Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n