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Humans First’s tour bus parked in front of Anthropic’s headquarters Monday after having visited OpenAI, Google, Meta and Nvidia facilities.Jared Perlo \/ NBC News<\/p>\nSAN FRANCISCO \u2014 As food delivery workers on e-scooters whizzed past a hulking tour bus parked next to Anthropic\u2019s headquarters in downtown San Francisco on Monday afternoon, software engineers returning from their lunch breaks snapped pictures of a brash slogan bursting out of the bus\u2019 idyllic Americana artwork of farmhouses and fields of grain. <\/p>\n
\u201cAI Data Center Revolt,\u201d the bus\u2019 detailed wrapping declared, proclaiming its mission to rally communities against wanton data center construction efforts across the country. <\/p>\n
The bus and its small crew of conservative activists from a group called Humans First had just completed an over 8,000-mile whistle-stop marathon of a road trip on perhaps the most uniting theme today: anti-data-center sentiment.<\/p>\n
Humans First’s tour bus parked in front of Anthropic’s headquarters Monday after having visited OpenAI, Google, Meta and Nvidia facilities.Jared Perlo \/ NBC News<\/p>\n
\u201cThis technology is being shoved down people\u2019s throats,\u201d said Amy Kremer, chair of Humans First, admiring the bus\u2019 artwork from a nearby sidewalk. She said the group aimed to push back against AI giants and their assumption that they can build billions of dollars of AI infrastructure without residents\u2019 input. \u201cThat\u2019s not the American way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Founded this year as a coalition of left- and right-wing activists who worry that the rush to embrace AI is being spearheaded by tech oligarchs steamrolling Americans\u2019 ability to steer the technology, Humans First has since morphed into a conservative-only effort led by Kremer to advocate for better guardrails on data center construction and AI in general.<\/p>\n
![\"Amy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/261005-Amy-Kremer-chair-Humans-First-vsb-1801-20d3a1.jpg\")
Amy Kremer, chair of Humans First, and her dog, Lovie, in San Francisco on Monday.Jared Perlo \/ NBC News<\/p>\n
Kremer, a veteran conservative organizer who played noted roles in the tea party and the organization that helped create the rally preceding the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack, has spearheaded cross-country bus trips to extol MAGA talking points and deny the outcome of the 2020 election. Composed of Kremer, her husband, her daughter and her dog, Lovie \u2014 \u201cHe\u2019s been with me the entire trip,\u201d Kremer said \u2014 along with staffers and security guards, the Humans First squad has made more than 35 stops in communities across the country over the past five weeks. <\/p>\n
The trip culminated in Monday\u2019s visits to Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta and Nvidia \u2014 widely regarded as the world\u2019s largest and most influential AI companies. Kremer and her daughter, Kylie Jane Kremer, fielded questions from reporters about the tour\u2019s goals and its accomplishments.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want Big Tech to actually include the American people and allow them to have a seat at the table,\u201d said Kylie Jane, a senior adviser at Humans First. She highlighted the organization\u2019s Data Center Policy, a 13-point charter that emphasizes community control over data center planning, rejects data centers\u2019 role in increasing electricity prices<\/a> and decries any use of American data centers for unconstitutional surveillance, among other issues.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not anti-AI, we\u2019re not anti-tech, we\u2019re not even anti-data center,\u201d Kylie Jane said. Instead, the team touts a proud populist message: AI development must prioritize Americans, and the historic infrastructure buildout must benefit the communities hosting data centers humming with billions of dollars of business. <\/p>\n Yet, during the monthlong tour, much of the nation\u2019s AI discourse shifted dramatically from worries about data centers\u2019 guzzling water to fears that the technology might wipe out billions of people \u2014 or the entire species<\/a> \u2014 in the next decade. Recent worries about such risks were catalyzed by former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon\u2019s warning<\/a> on X that leading AI companies are recklessly speeding toward technological disaster. <\/p>\n Amy Kremer said AI\u2019s potential existential threats had clearly struck a nerve with Middle America, with growing numbers of people at Humans First rallies bringing up AI\u2019s risks to society beyond immediate data center impacts.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople across the country are definitely paying attention to the existential risk and what is coming out about that,\u201d Kremer said. On Sunday, Kremer participated in a panel at a gathering of AI luminaries in nearby Berkeley, where she laid out the future of conservative AI approaches to mitigate such potential outcomes.<\/p>\n Kremer said she vehemently disagreed with some of the conference\u2019s participants about the idea that AI systems could ever be conscious or have a soul \u2014 a belief some Anthropic employees acknowledge as possible<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cPersonally, I think it\u2019s demonic,\u201d she said, looking toward the Anthropic headquarters. \u201cWe are human beings, and we all have souls. And you cannot put a soul in a machine. Part of me feels sad for them that that\u2019s how empty and soulless their lives are.\u201d<\/p>\n Anthropic didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Kremer and her cadre have found thousands of Americans fed up with large AI companies\u2019 setting up data center projects under shady shell companies or under the protection of nondisclosure agreements. She pointed to a tour stop in Jonesburg, Missouri, a small town in a county of 12,000 people. Google<\/a> and Amazon<\/a> have announced they will invest a combined $25 billion in data centers in the county over the coming years. <\/p>\n \u201cThat is a David-versus-Goliath story,\u201d she said. \u201cHow do you ever fight that alone?\u201d<\/p>\n The journey hasn\u2019t been without its bumps. Kremer has received death threats, some from staunchly pro-AI people, her husband said. And sometimes the road has been too rough for the bus itself \u2014 one gravel road in Wakarusa, Kansas, proved impassable and forced the team to ask the owners of a nearby house whether they could hold their rally there instead of farther down the road.<\/p>\n \u201cWord got to the people down the dirt road, and then all of a sudden, before you know it, here they come,\u201d Kremer said. \u201cIt was like \u2018Field of Dreams.\u2019 They just kept coming, the cars and the people. It just warms your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n The Humans First team is clear-eyed that not all Americans are completely on board with their message. President Donald Trump has repeatedly embraced data centers <\/a>and the AI buildout as an economic boon that must be embraced, referring to AI as a \u201cgolden goose.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Kylie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/261005-Kylie-Jane-Kremer-vsb-1808-f5f6e8.jpg\")
Kylie Jane Kremer, senior adviser to Humans First, in San Francisco on Monday.Jared Perlo \/ NBC News<\/p>\n![\"Anthropic's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/261005-anthropic-headquarters-vsb-1754-80b022.jpg\")
Anthropic’s headquarters in San Francisco on Monday.Jared Perlo \/ NBC News<\/p>\n
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The tour bus, which visited over 35 locations over five weeks to rally communities around guardrails for AI and data centers, parked in Berkeley, Calif., on Sunday.Jared Perlo \/ NBC News<\/p>\n