this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2026
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If you want a barometer of American political concerns you could do worse than checking what spam accounts are turning into AI-generated slop on Facebook. There are now hundreds of pages with names like “Life in Texas," “History of Wisconsin,” and “Life Is Idaho" churning out dozens of AI-generated images playing into anti-data center sentiment across the country.

One of the most ubiquitous styles of anti-data center slop I’ve seen is a vast tract of farm land with a message like “not worth giving up an inch of this to a data center” mowed into it. The image is tailored to fit the target audience in each state. “Our great lakes. Our forests. Our communities. Our future,” said the Michigan version in the field surrounded by a massive lake and a water tower that helpfully read “Michigan.” The Kentucky version repeated the message but added “bluegrass, bourbon, and horses. Kentucky” to the mowed grass.

The caption of the post explained that a rural farmer in the state mowed the letters into their field as a form of protest against proposed data centers. There are hundreds of these pages, all themed around life in individual states, sharing similar versions of the same images. “Wow. According to FB, every farmer in every state has done this. Enough with the AI,” said a comment below one of the images on the “Life in Kentucky” Facebook page.

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[–] riskable@programming.dev 1 points 5 days ago

These are both anti-data center messages. That's orthogonal to AI.

I bet if you asked these people if we should get rid of all data centers they'd say, "yes." Completely unaware that they're using (and relying on) services running out of data centers every day.

[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

'he's confused, but he's got the spirit' I guess...?

[–] SacralPlexus@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago

“I’m condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them. I burn my decency for someone else’s future.”

  • Luthen Raels
[–] Blackfeathr@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Engagement bait, on Facebook‽ No waaaayyy....

Holy combination punctuation, batman

[–] rhythmisaprancer@quokk.au 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm not sure I understand this. Spam accounts are using AI to fight AI? Or are data centers for something else? I don't like this kind of engagement, but this specifically doesn't make sense to me. How would it help the AI cause?

[–] zloubida@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They don't care about the cause. They're here for the engagement.

[–] rhythmisaprancer@quokk.au 3 points 1 week ago

Engagement only? I guess I am not surprised, but very disappointed. This helps me see why winning people over about certain topics is so hard.

i wonder how many of these are run by an openclaw instance