Mitchell Hartman

Now, she's contending with a new disruption.

One day, I turned on my computer, and there was ChatGPT available on the dashboard for free.

Last year, the Cal State system made a $17 million deal with OpenAI to provide ChatGPT to half a million students and faculty, whether they want it or not.

We're being told if you don't teach these kids this technology, it's just going to be another way that everything's working against them succeeding.

But Baxter-Rice is already noticing unsettling effects.

Students cheating on papers, of course, but also a sense that people on campus are struggling psychologically with the new technology.

I'm concerned.

I'm really scared.

What's happened to young people over the past 15 years is...

is scary enough, and then adding this technology to the conversation is really frightening.

The tech industry is racing toward a future that doesn't sound great to a lot of people.

Recent data from the Pew Research Center show Americans are much more concerned than excited about AI.

And in communities across the country, data centers have become a lightning rod.

Local opposition has already shut down dozens of projects.

Residents in Hobart, Indiana, outside Chicago, have been protesting a proposed Amazon AI data center for months.

I got in touch with a couple of the organizers.

Angelita Soriano lives across the street from the 700-acre site, and Barbara Koteles lives about a quarter mile away.

They've been distributing yard signs, going door-to-door, even sponsored a billboard at a busy intersection in town.

They worry about noise, pollution, traffic, declining property values, and strain on the power grid.

Electricity prices in the area have already gone up an average of 26 percent in the last year, and they doubt the benefits of AI will make up for it.