'AI centers' viewed more negatively than 'data centers'

ADA — Ohioans have a relatively favorable opinion of "data centers," but a more negative opinion when they are referred to as "AI centers," an Ohio Northern University poll recently determined. The Institute for Civics and Public Policy at ONU recently released the results of the October 2025 iteration of the Northern Poll, a public opinion research project dedicated to advancing understanding of Ohioans' sentiments on key public policy issues. ICAPP is a political science think tank in which ONU undergraduates conduct political research and write policy papers. The poll conducted an experiment regarding computing centers in Ohio; it prompted half of the respondents to consider "data centers," and the other half of the audience to consider "AI centers". Both groups of respondents were asked to provide their level of support for the construction of these centers, in addition to their perceived impacts on the economy, the environment, quality of living and public safety. Keith Durkin, professor of sociology and ICAPP director, said data centers intrigued him as a topic because, while pursuing his doctorate in sociology, he became interested in researching how society allocates its resources. "These data centers require a lot of power and a lot of water. It just piqued my curiosity," he said. "I hadn't heard much discussion about either." He said these centers are often constructed with "not a great deal of explanation" and later on, community members may wonder, "What is this?" Gabriel Mott, a senior at ONU and an ICAPP Fellow, proposed a poll in which half of those surveyed heard questions about "data centers" while the other half heard the exact same questions about "AI centers." Mott is majoring in statistics with a secondary major in political science. He was interested in helping the public understand more about what AI is and how it works, given how prominent it is in national conversations. Durkin, who wrote his own initial thesis on the rise of the internet, said he suspects that AI, like the internet overall, will look very different in the coming years than it does now — but it's hard to say exactly how. "It surprised me that AI was viewed that negatively," he said on the survey results. Mott said he suspects it's because "AI" is "a bit of a buzzword right now," whereas "data center" is seen as more "neutral". After all, the latter is the way industry professionals tend to describe it, he said. Construction of "data" centers saw +10 net support, which is the weighted proportion of negative responses subtracted from the weighted proportion of positive responses (12% strongly support; 24% somewhat support; 15% somewhat oppose; 11% strongly oppose). This drops by 16 points to -6 net support for (10% strongly support; 21% somewhat support; 19% somewhat oppose; 18% strongly oppose). With both terms, the centers were seen as an economic positive, Durkin said. He said people expect that the centers will create jobs in the community, both in the short term during their construction and in the long term as people continue to work there. However, the perceived economic benefits drop from +29 net support for "data" to +11 for "AI". "The clear public hesitation toward the term 'AI,' especially its mitigating effect on perceived economic benefits, indicates that the 'AI Bubble' may be beginning to burst in Ohio," Mott said. Similarly, those polled saw the centers as a negative on the environment regardless of wording, but they felt more strongly when "AI" was used, with results dropping from -12 to -23 for the environment. "Data centers" saw +8 net support for both quality of living and public safety – but "AI centers" were seen as a negative in both categories (-9 for quality of living and -13 for public safety). "Slightly more Ohioans have an opinion about 'AI' centers than they do 'data' centers, and when they do they're more likely to feel strongly about it," Mott said. "This is reflective of the national conversation about AI over the past several years." Mott has been involved with ICAPP since his sophomore year, and said he was interested in getting involved as ONU is one of the few universities that gives undergraduates access to survey research experiences like this. He is currently applying to Ph.D. programs to continue this work after graduating from ONU in spring 2026. Durkin said ICAPP intends, in further research, to explore energy affordability, such as concerns over increasing electric and water bills. He said ICAPP has, in general, been focusing more on research related to Ohio as opposed to national issues in recent years. Next semester, they expect to release the results of a recent poll about dispensaries that explores if they are viewed differently when questions used the word "marijuana" as opposed to "cannabis." Last year's research included using data from drug courts to explore youth mental health issues in Ohio, including the impact of the COVID pandemic. ICAPP partnered with Survey USA for the recent poll of 1,638 Ohio adults. The margin of error ranges from 3.1% to 5.1%, depending on the question. Full results can be viewed at https://www.onu.edu/northern-poll.