El-Sayed Issues Data Center Warning As Voters Are ‘Deathly Afraid’ - Newsweek

Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has said that some Michigan voters are "deathly afraid" of the rapid growth of data centers.

Artificial intelligence and the rapid construction of data centers have emerged as key issues ahead of the midterm elections. Citizens across the country have raised concerns about their potential impact on electricity bills, water consumption, and noise disrupting nearby neighborhoods.

Speaking on CBS News' 60 Minutes, El-Sayed, who is ahead of former Republican Representative Mike Rogers in several polls, discussed what he saw as the most important issues facing Michiganders. "Had you asked me five years ago, I would have said healthcare. It still is really really high on people's minds. I think right now we are barreling toward a world where the most important issue I hear about every day is AI," he said.

He said that AI could transform the economy so rapidly that society would be unable to adjust, and warned of the risks of the technology escaping human control and being used by terrorists to develop a biological weapon or fueling an arms race that threatens humanity.

"All of these outcomes are really really quite scary. I hear it in so many different ways," he said.

El-Sayed added that students were fearful of the disruption the technology could bring to the jobs market, and cited rural voters who were concerned about the impact of data centers on utility bills.

"These are issues that people are deathly afraid of and it shows up in just all kinds of ways," he said.

El-Sayed is competing against Republican Mike Rogers in a closely watched Senate contest that will help decide the balance of power in Congress.

Newsweek contacted El-Sayed’s campaign for comment via email outside of working hours on Monday. Newsweek also contacted Rogers’ campaign for comment via online form.

El-Sayed also called for clear “terms of engagement” governing the development of data centers.

“This really is where the rubber hits the road for a lot of folks,” the candidate said, before laying out five conditions that he said data-center projects should meet.

“Number one, you need community benefits agreements that are negotiated in good faith, transparently with local communities, with the ability for the local communities to say ‘we don't want this here.'"

He also argued that data center projects shouldn’t raise utility rates for nearby neighborhoods and that the revenue they create should be reinvested in improving reliability.

“Four, cannot touch our waterways at all. And five, all union labor,” El-Sayed said, adding: “I think that terms of engagement needs to exist at the federal level, and until then, we need local and state moratoriums.”

Republican Mike Rogers has also endorsed a one-year moratorium on data centers in Michigan.

In Saline Township, residents have opposed a planned $16 billion data center development backed by Oracle and OpenAI, citing concerns about the potential impact on local water supplies, the electricity grid and the area’s rural character.

Recent polls show El-Sayed with a lead in race, though the margins vary between pollsters. The latest in a New York Times/Siena survey published Sunday had the gap at 11 points. A YouGov poll released late October had it at 4 points.

But over the weekend, El-Sayed’s former Democratic rival, Representative Haley Stevens endorsed Rogers. Stevens narrowly lost the August Democratic primary to Abdul El-Sayed and initially endorsed him, but their relationship deteriorated during the closing days of the general-election campaign.

El-Sayed dismissed the endorsement, saying: “I'm just less interested in the politics of it all than I am in the policy of it all.”