1-0 to humankind? US midterms vote puts AI, datacentres and the broligarchy back in their box | Heather Stewart

Election results appear to have turbo-charged an already growing social, political and financial market rethink about AI

Last week’s midterms may not have cowed Donald Trump, but they should be a wake-up call for the grinning tech broligarchs who lined up at his inauguration two chaotic years ago.

Clearly, the cost of living squeeze unleashed by Trump’s war in Iran was a big driver of the Democrat wave. But AI was also on the ballot – in many places, literally.

Dozens of measures calling for limits on datacentre expansion were passed. And elsewhere, reining in the unchecked expansion of the power-hungry mega-sheds was a rallying cry.