Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday broke with the White House over its rebranded artificial intelligence program. He called the administration’s new “super intelligence factories” by a different name. “Surveillance centers,” he said.
The rebrand began after Sweet Potato Hitler met with technology executives last week. The former president’s economic team had spent months defending data centers as a rural jobs program. That argument was no longer working in the counties where the centers were being built.
A White House fact sheet said the new name came from focus groups. One internal memo reported that “data center” tested 14 points lower than “super intelligence factory” among men aged 45 to 64 who own at least one drone. The memo did not mention water use or electric bills.
“This is about civic data conversion at scale,” said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during a fireside chat with Elon Musk. “The internet let us find anything. Our new infrastructure lets us know anything and do anything from anywhere.” He added that the technology would soon cure cancer.
Mr. Huang’s comments came one day after he said the centers would revitalize small towns. He did not say whether the jobs would last longer than the construction crews.
The problem is the electric bill. The Center for Economic Policy Research found that data centers cost consumers $23 billion nationwide. Adding ten centers to a regional grid raises local electric bills by 13 percent.
The centers create wealth for executives and early investors. They do not create it for the people living next to the cooling towers. Rural Texas voters have started a “Break Rank” movement over the costs. “Nobody asked us to rank anything,” a spokesman said. “We just want our lights to stay on.”
The political damage deepened after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was heard in leaked audio telling donors the midterm convention was “a drag on all of our poll numbers.” DeSantis, who is said to be eyeing a 2028 run, reposted a critique that said “super intelligence factories equals surveillance centers.”
The administration’s national security argument has been hard to explain. The Department of Justice intervened on behalf of Mr. Musk’s data center projects to override local environmental rules. A person familiar with the filing said the centers were needed for the military. “It is not about better health care,” the person said. “It is about national security.”
The surveillance concern did not arrive from nowhere. A federal judge allowed the Department of Homeland Security to obtain Social Security information despite privacy laws. Security researchers found 1.66 million images in the Flock camera system, including license plate photos that showed flags.
“The rebrand is wise,” a White House aide said. “We are telling rural America they are part of a super intelligence future, even if they pay for it with higher power bills.”
