At least 37 people have been arrested this year during U.S. protests over AI data centers, according to a report from Futurism. The arrests span communities nationwide, where residents have challenged proposed or existing data centers over concerns about electricity demand, water use, pollution, land use, tax incentives, and government transparency. In February, Oklahoma resident Darren Blanchard was arrested on a criminal trespass charge after exceeding a three-minute public comment limit. In May, Indiana resident Pablo Payan was arrested after refusing to identify himself before speaking at a public meeting on a proposed Amazon data center. In July, Kansas physics teacher Lux Claridge was arrested after continuing to clap during a zoning hearing on a proposed data center campus. Opposition is expanding into a national political movement, with Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson emerging as a leading voice of a “New Luddite” movement calling for data center moratoriums, stricter oversight, and greater transparency. In July, advocacy group Humans First said it organized 142 protests across 42 states during a national day of action. That same month, about 200 protesters organized by Stop the AI Race marched through San Francisco between the offices of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind, calling for a pause in the development of more powerful AI models.