Khanna cautious, Rabb skeptical about AI and data center boom

“The community should have the ability to say no,” he continued. 

Khanna’s comments were made on Tuesday in Philadelphia during the first stop on his “Made in PA: New Economic Patriotism Tour,” which has over a dozen events scheduled throughout Pennsylvania. Khanna, a fifth-term congressman and Bucks County native who previously served as a co-chair of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' bid for the White House, is mentioned as a potential presidential candidate in 2028.

“There should be rights in America to resist these data centers that are coming in, and they're not putting investment into the community,” Khanna said. “They're not building schools. They're doing it in defiance of the local community.”

Fifteen states, including Pennsylvania, have introduced legislation that would place a moratorium on building data centers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, or NCSL.

Earlier this month, New York became the first state to impose a data center moratorium. 

However, when asked by an attendee at Tuesday’s event whether he supports moratoriums like New York's, Khanna said it should be a “state-by-state, community-by-community decision.”

“That's what the Data Center Bill of Rights would do,” he said. “It would give every community the right to say yes or not.”

Khanna’s district is in the heart of Silicon Valley. He said that some communities, like San Jose, came to an agreement on data center development. 

While Khanna believes data center bans should be decided at the local or state level, some lawmakers argue that the federal government should step in to enforce a moratorium.

In March, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., announced the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center Moratorium Act, which they said would institute “an immediate federal moratorium on AI data centers until strong national safeguards are in place.”

“AI and robotics are creating the most sweeping technological revolution in the history of humanity. The scale, scope and speed of that change is unprecedented. Congress is way behind where it should be in understanding the nature of this revolution and its impacts,” Sanders said. “Bottom line: We cannot sit back and allow a handful of billionaire Big Tech oligarchs to make decisions that will reshape our economy, our democracy and the future of humanity.” 

“We need serious public debate and democratic oversight over this enormously consequential issue,” Sanders continued. “The time for action is now. We need a federal moratorium on AI data centers.”

The House version of this proposal, authored by Ocasio-Cortez, has a total of 13 co-sponsors. None are from Pennsylvania. 

State Rep. Chris Rabb, the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District, who is expected to be elected to the seat representing nearly half of Philadelphia in November, joined Khanna at Tuesday’s event. Khanna was an early supporter of Rabb’s congressional campaign. 

Rabb supports a federal moratorium on data centers and claims those who oppose them are not anti-technology. 

“AI is not going away,” Rabb said. “But here's the concern I have, I believe this massive explosion of AI data centers is meant to displace American workers forever, and I believe that's evil.”

“These data centers, this explosion of data centers is not to make us better compete against the Chinese,” Rabb said. “It is to displace massive amounts of workers for the enrichment of the one percent. And I will oppose that.”

AI data centers are also increasingly on the minds of Pennsylvanians. 

A Quinnipiac University poll conducted earlier this month showed that 76% of Pennsylvanians say they are following news about AI data centers either very closely or somewhat closely, while 24% say they are not following the issue too closely. 

Of those polled, 74% of voters in the state say they would oppose building an AI data center in their community, while 16% say they would support it, plus 10% offering no opinion.

While Khanna believes his Data Center Bill of Rights would be beneficial in the ongoing debate over data centers, he also offered a few other policy proposals. 

“We need to be taxing AI and robotics just more than we tax human workers,” Khanna said. 

In his explanation, Khanna said that those who hire a person have to cover their health insurance and pay payroll taxes, while those who employ robots or AI to do the same job don’t have to do the same. 

And, lastly, Khanna said the nation needs a federal jobs program. 

“If you want to come and help rebuild Philadelphia, or you want to rebuild the country, the federal government should help hire you, put you in a good job, and create not just a physical infrastructure, but a social infrastructure for America,” Khanna said. 

He noted the anxiety of Americans across different job sectors caused by the rise of AI and said a “bold vision” was needed to be on the side of workers and human beings “instead of AI, tech billionaires.”

On the final day of his tour, Khanna has an event scheduled in Delaware County titled “Protecting Workers & PA Communities: What the Future Economy Should Look Like in an AI World.”

“The AI revolution should serve working people, not just a tiny cabal of hyper-wealthy tech oligarchs in Silicon Valley,” written on the description promoting the event. “Join Rep. Ro Khanna for a conversation with steelworkers, warehouse workers, truck drivers, caregivers, tech workers, students, and community members about protecting workers, expanding opportunity, and ensuring the gains from AI are broadly shared –– especially as we center PA's frontline workforce.”