Chuck Hollis

Will AI take jobs? Yes. More accurately, AI will take jobs from people who refuse to use it. These people will be far less productive, and far less employable as a result. This is the same as computers, the internet, mobile phones and any other modern technology that improves productivity. Being able to use modern tools is expected in any employment environment.

You are assuming all tokens come from a taxable provider. Anyone can generate tokens locally at near zero cost. "frontier models" become "open source" and then "runs on your local hardware". I'm running a simple one right now, it's surprisingly good and improves almost weekly. Good luck taxing the free software I'm running on my own hardware. What's next -- taxing Linux?

We should federally tax Tokens at the Provider level. Not a lot. Less than 50c per million tokens. It will accomplish 4 things (at least ) 1. It will push the big AI players to optimize tokenization, caching , routing and localization Which will 2. Reduce energy usage. Saving them in energy costs more than what they paid in tax and reducing strain created by the growth in energy consumption Which will 3. Generate maybe 10 billion dollars a year to start, but over the next ten years could grow 30x to 100x Which will 4. Create a source of funding to pay down the federal debt or deploy, in response to the things AI brings that we don’t expect or don’t like At some point the models will pass it on to customers. Of course. That’s ok. Customers will have the ability to choose between providers. Or to do everything using open source models locally. Thoughts ?

I, like many others, have been a direct participant in our society's technology arc. For four decades, I worked for awesome IT vendors. Launched important products. Worked with clients on how best to move forward. I've been inside dozens and dozens of data centers around the world. For me, it was obvious that all this tech was making the world a much better place: faster, cheaper, safer, healthier, wealthier, less stressful and more enjoyable. I couldn't imagine that anyone would seriously oppose human progress. Or if such miscreants existed, no one would listen to their crazy rantings. After watching a well-orchestrated moral panic over AI data centers, I can vouch for the following: - The facts almost never support the fears - Many people celebrate their ignorance - The objectors do not care about societal harms While some of the resistance is undoubtedly organic, there is strong circumstantial evidence of external funding and organization. And I'm quite sure a lot of money is changing hands to support the "movement". In 2020, AOC and Bernie Saunders proposed a nationwide ban on fracking in the US. The moral panic was quite similar. My favorite was the "burning water" story, that fracking had so badly polluted the local water that you could actually light it on fire. Of course, fracking had nothing to do with it, the water table had become naturally intermixed with underground methane. It had always been undrinkable and could be "burned" for centuries prior. But it sure made for a great story, didn't it? In 2026, fracking (tight oil) is now estimated to supply TWO THIRDS of US oil production, thanks to the new tech. World geopolitics changed for the better as a result. These same people are now back with a proposed AI data center ban. But there's no "burning water" for them to point at this time around. Here are my directly observed facts: Noise: almost silent when connected to the grid. Water: used for cooling, then returned. Farmland: generally too expensive for data centers. Size: bigger ones are more efficient than smaller ones. Caveats: - gas turbines do generate noise, - if power drops, the diesel generators fire up - some water gets evaporated during cooling - marginal farmland is sometimes attractive Data centers create skilled jobs, often in places where there are few. After construction, traffic is minimal. Here on X, the opposition falls into three groups: = "no nothings" - emotional rants from unstable people - "fear grifters" - drive clicks with outrageous claims - "paid actors" - clearly sponsored and coordinated What does this last group really want? The same thing the anti-fracking crowd was after -- a severely crippled US economy. The good news? The federal government will step in as a matter of national security if this continues, as it should. Just one more reason to never let the Dems anywhere near power ever again.

Maybe data centers aren't a big electoral issue in MT, but if more people knew what the importance was, they'd be far more supportive. There's pretty strong evidence that the opposition is well-organized and foreign sponsored. Also evidence-free once you chase down all the wild claims. I'd put it right up there with banning the internet, banning fossil fuels, banning vaccines and other extremist positions. They take electricity and turn it into compute. Most if the demand is coming from large corporations, who can't get enough. They don't pollute. They generally use water for cooling. If they use gas turbines it can be noisy in the neighborhood. They create high-paying jobs during construction, and more for 24x7 operations. I can't see why any community leader wouldn't support clean economic growth in their district.

Things I never thought I’d need to be researching when I ran for office: Data-centers 🥴 It has a very Cold-War Space Race feel to it, with government massively investing, fueling, and pushing for these because, we’re told, China can’t win in the AI race. Still digging into it, but that’s honestly my first impression… seems like thing number 5,286 of things we can’t afford but are ESSENTIAL to our future… 😒

@wendyp4545 Right after the investigation to find out if you're a CCP operative.

Has anyone thought to investigate Tesla to find out if any of their intelectual property here in the US is shared with CHINA?

In the 60s and 70s, being a danger to yourself or others would usually result in a 72 hour involuntary hold at a psychiatric facility for evaluation. Conduct like this would definitely qualify. Even the craziest among us knew if they went off leash, they'd be literally imprisoned for three days -- or worse -- sent off to a mental hospital. We had a lot fewer crazy people acting up as a result. Bring back 72 hour holds. Bring back psychiatric facilities. Bring back mental hospitals.

@jackvlloyd There is an identifiable component that appears to be getting paid for their non-stop activism. Coordinated messaging is the giveaway, same as the Dems.

You can judge how intelligent someone is by how much they hate data centers. The greater the hate, the lower the intelligence.

Don't build the wells. Don't build the power plants. Don't build the data centers. And, by the way, fire is awfully dangerous ...

@iluminatibot It's the new grift. No money left in climate, racism, gender, etc.

It's amazing how fast the climate scam disappeared as soon as these AI data centers started being built.

I guess the TDS mutual support group in Miami decided to hire a lawyer and make a big, showy virtue signal for their friends. Of course, there's zero legal basis for any of this. Congrats to the Miami legal team who will be milking these morons for many years to come.

Climate grifting. Racial grifting. And now AI grifting. Grifters gonna grift ...

A bit of relevant tech history? In the mid-1990s, SAP R/3 caught on like wildfire in the corporate IT world. Old: disparate systems with lots of manual integration New: one integrated, realtime view of the business Any company of any size that didn't have SAP was now at a substantial competitive disadvantage. The race was on. Over the next decade, hundreds of billions were spent on software, hardware, consulting, operations, migration, etc. New data centers sprung up everywhere. The same thing is happening with AI today.

@kasthomas x.com/KeyboardChuck/…

Data centers don't create jobs. They destroy them, with AI.

@pmarca x.com/KeyboardChuck/…

Moral panics of the 1980s included teens drinking, teens having sex, teens driving, teens smoking, teens watching television, teen movies, teens playing RPG’s, teens listening to music, teens playing video games.

@Gallup x.com/KeyboardChuck/…

Seven in 10 Americans oppose constructing data centers for artificial intelligence in their local area, including nearly half, 48%, who are strongly opposed.

@redpillb0t x.com/KeyboardChuck/…

Stop calling them "data centers." Call them what they actually are: MASS SURVEILLANCE CENTERS.

@ckoopman x.com/KeyboardChuck/…

A dozen states did this to nuclear power in the ‘70s and ‘80s. It helped killed the industry for forty years. Many states have repealed those measures since 2016. Applying the “will of the people” to infrastructure is how you get a country that can’t build anything.

Technophobe: one with an irrational fear of technology. It's been with us since the beginning:

Why do I get the sense that I'm watching a major chapter in history unfold before my eyes?