Datacentres are deeply unpopular – so the geniuses at OpenAI are rebranding them | Arwa Mahdawi

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These resource-guzzling centres drive up utility bills and are hated across the political spectrum.

Jesus may have turned water into wine, but Donald Trump has done one better: he turned Lake Ontario into Lake America and the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America. And then, for his next trick, he insisted we all stop talking about artificial intelligence (AI) and call it superintelligence (SI) instead.

Those, of course, are only a few of the name changes the president has ushered in. When he’s not golfing or commenting on senators’ buttocks, president Trump loves a rebranding project. Which makes sense: coming up with a new name is far easier than making meaningful improvements to people’s lives.

Trump isn’t alone in thinking a rebrand can distract from bigger issues. The tech industry seems to be on a mission to pepper every inch of the earth with datacentres that will facilitate our glorious AI-powered future. One slight problem: the hoi polloi are not quite so enthusiastic. People around the world are increasingly nervous about AI.

Meanwhile, a majority of Americans across the political spectrum hate datacentres with a passion; so much so that they have become one of the biggest talking points of the midterms.