Anti-Data Center Group Planned Massive ‘Revolt.’ Barely A Soul Showed Up

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A grassroots effort to turn Americans against artificial intelligence and data centers struggled to draw a crowd.

Humans First, a self-described conservative anti-data center group led by former Tea Party activist Amy Kremer, began its national “Data Center Revolt” bus tour, featuring 35 stops in 27 states, on Sept. 12 in Austin, Texas, as part of a fight against what the group dubs “Big AI globalists,” according to the organization’s website. As tour stops across the country repeatedly draw small crowds, questions remain about the organization’s national reach and its undisclosed financing.

A small number of supporters and journalists turned out for a Thursday bus stop at Bren Mar Park in Alexandria, Virginia, the Daily Caller News Foundation learned upon observing the event. Among the attendees were protesters with the Alliance for Secure AI who held signs featuring anti-data center messages.

The hour-long protest consisted of speeches from Kremer and allies before a brief question-and-answer session. A total of 18 participants initially registered for the event, according to Humans First’s event posting.

About 20 people turned out for a recent Humans First stop in Effingham County, Georgia, the Current GA reported. Attendance at some of the group’s July 18 rallies was thin, Reuters reported, including about a dozen people in Atlanta and Tyler, Texas. 

“LOL I’ll assume these questions were a joke, if they aren’t then let me know when anyone out in rural America shows up for a pro-data center rally and then we will be happy to compare notes,” Humans First spokesperson Chris Barron told the DCNF, when asked about the low turnout at the organization’s protests.

“This is what community looks like!,” Humans First said in a Thursday Instagram post showing participants at the organization’s stop line up in front of the tour bus in Jacksonville, Florida.

Innovation Council, a pro-AI advocacy group, cast the tour as manufactured.

“This is what the astroturf Humans First ‘bus tour’ looks like in practice,” Innovation Council said in a Sept. 12 X post responding to Kremer’s announcement of the bus tour. Attached to the post was a video showing sparse attendance at a Humans First protest.