AI and data center fears among voters

There's a new warning today about AI, tech insiders, and an article by Time claims superintelligence is a few months away from a point when developers may lose control of the systems. The news is expected to feed into the political controversy right here in Texas over data centers. Fox 7 Austin's chief political reporter, Rudy Kosky, joining us now with a look at how one small Texas community is trying to rein in that growing fear. Rudy. Hi, Alec. Yeah, You know, we heard about the AI warning just a few moments ago in that Fox News report. And also in this Time article, the tech experts saying that they're coming forward not to push a ban on AI. They're trying to encourage ways to regulate and manage it. Essentially, that's the same approach that's being pitched for data centers right here in Texas. Those big box computing complexes, they certainly help power the superintelligence programs. on the midterm campaign trail those facilities they have become a political boogeyman an issue for both Democrats and Republicans on our battleground Texas show today we talked about this high-tech NIMBYism plus we heard from the mayor of Haskell Texas that area is a hot zone for data center construction in Texas and community leaders there seem to be managing the projects and the fear transparency is the biggest key and i feel like since i've been mayor i've been very transparent about everything that happens within the city. And in Haskell County, I feel like it's different. There are people that are worried and there's people that are scared and there's people that are against it and for it. But overall, I feel like our community is really good about just having conversations and not yelling. Is the financial payback worth the fight? All of our commissioners that sit in our county, they have been commissioners for 10, 15, 20, 30 years and they've watched the cities in our county decline. They've watched schools close, they've watched grocery stores close, they've watched the towns get smaller. So you can't blame them for wanting to try to bring some kind of economic growth to the community. It's become a very political topic, of course. But the fact from the fiction, I think it's getting a little blurred about their impacts on these communities. Managed growth policies should have killed off this boogeyman. Why is it still alive? Rudy, I'm not sure, you know, the pledge of new guardrails set in stone should have calmed fears. Recycle the water you use completely. Put back into the grid every electron you consume. And never, ever build next to neighborhoods. But it is still a boogeyman. And it's on the campaign trail. Claims by Gina Hinojosa that data centers are examples of political corruption. echoed by James Tallarico, who has ads accusing Ken Paxton of getting payoffs from developers. Meanwhile, Governor Greg Abbott is demanding water use audits, and Ken Paxton is trying to enforce that demand by the governor. Now, not complying with that water use audit demand from the governor, it doesn't have a lot of teeth to it and comes with very little risk. The Texas Tribune reporting that the law that's being used to back up that demand, Alec, only comes with a maximum $500 fine. fine. It's just a misdemeanor. Rudy, the water update, is it true it had a today deadline and did the governor get that? Yeah, I contacted the governor's office today, talked to them this afternoon. Yes, it did have a deadline for today and yes, that report is on the way, I'm told, to the governor's office right now. When it will become public, not quite sure about that one. Rudy Kosky, thank you.