President Donald Trump said earlier this week that any governor or local government official should want to welcome the construction of AI data centers.
"The construction jobs are enormous. We're building the biggest plants anywhere in the world. And I can say, if I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state, and I had a chance to get a big plant in an AI plant or a data center, I would absolutely want it because the jobs are enormous, and the money paid, the taxes paid are just enormous," Trump said at the White House on Wednesday.
"And if you don't take it, you're going to be left behind because there are plenty of places that want it," he added during a meeting with technology and cryptocurrency industry leaders in the Roosevelt Room. "But if I were a governor or mayor, I would want that plant in my community. And many of them are designed in a very beautiful way. It's really very positive."
Trump also suggested that the AI industry needs "a little public relations help," given that the majority of Americans are opposed to data centers being built in their communities, according to a Gallup poll from May.
Americans surveyed in that poll were largely concerned with the potential environmental impact of data centers, as well as their need for large amounts of electricity and water to run.
In response to a reporter who asked what Trump would say to those who are still reticent about AI, the president again pointed to job creation, but also medical innovation.
"I think it's going to create a lot of jobs. It's going to create success. It's going to create tremendous innovation medically," Trump said. "They came out with something today that I looked at it having to do— I won't go into the details, but having to do with a pretty unstoppable disease, and all of a sudden they're coming up with answers that they never thought were possible."