The AI backpedaling has begun: 2028 Democratic contenders who bet big on data centers are suddenly retreating amid a growing voter revolt.

Why it matters: The politics of AI are evolving almost as rapidly as the technology.

• Just a few months ago, potential 2028 presidential candidates — including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore — were bending over backward to lure data centers, with offers of lavish tax breaks and other goodies.
• The projects seemed like no-brainers to many pols: They promised jobs, made building trade unions happy, took on China and pleased Silicon Valley execs.
• Now those Democrats are abruptly retreating — and vowing to protect voters from the consequences of the AI revolution.

The reason for the pivot: From MAGA country to liberal Prince George's County in Maryland's D.C. suburbs, Americans are increasingly blaming the power-sucking centers for high energy bills — and they're freaked out about AI's ability to eliminate jobs.

Zoom in: Before the dawn of ChatGPT, Pritzker signed legislation in 2019 doling out tax breaks for data centers.

• AI took off and Chicago became one of the nation's biggest data-center hubs. But households' electricity bills went up, and some faulted data centers.
• This past week, Pritzker hit the pause button in his State of the State speech, proposing a two-year moratorium on the tax incentives.

Shapiro has shifted from proclaiming last year that Pennsylvania was "all in on AI" and trumpeting a $20 billion investment by Amazon in his state.

• After residents complained about data centers in their backyards, Shapiro called for additional oversight during his budget address this month, saying: "I know Pennsylvanians have real concerns about these data centers ... and so do I."
• On Friday, Shapiro told reporters that his position was "not really a switch" but rather formalizing what had already been the expectations for data-center companies.

Moore also has worked hard to woo data centers, signing a bill in 2024 that removed building roadblocks and vetoing legislation to study their impacts.

• He changed tone at his State of the State address this month, unveiling new guidelines that Maryland data centers must follow to win his support.

What they're saying: "We're in the early innings of the anxiety people are feeling about artificial intelligence," said Rob Flaherty, a deputy campaign manager for Kamala Harris in 2024. "Data centers are just one manifestation of that, but they're a serious one."

• "It's smart for Democrats to be on the front foot of this."
• Pritzker, Shapiro and Moore declined to comment.

The intrigue: In an interview with Axios, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear described his approach, which is quickly becoming Democrats' playbook for navigating the issue.

• Beshear, who's also eyeing a White House run, said data center developers in his state should do three things: "Pay for 100% of your power," "pay your fair share of taxes," and "be embraced by the community."

Keep reading.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to the Pentagon tomorrow morning for what sources say is likely to be a tense meeting over terms for military use of Anthropic's Claude.

• "Anthropic knows this is not a get-to-know-you meeting," a Defense official told Axios. "This is not a friendly meeting. This is a shit-or-get-off-the-pot meeting."

Why it matters: Claude is currently the only AI model operating inside the military's classified systems.

• The Pentagon doesn't want to lose access to Claude but is furious with Anthropic for refusing to entirely lift its safeguards.

State of play: Anthropic is willing to loosen its usage restrictions, but wants to wall off two areas: the mass surveillance of Americans, and the development of weapons that fire without human involvement.

• An Anthropic spokesperson said the company is working through various scenarios, but is focused on a deal that respects the red lines on mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.
• That deal could end up being temporary, continued use of Anthropic while the Pentagon gets a replacement ready, the spokesperson added.

Keep reading.

OpenAI released new data showing people are using the consumer version of ChatGPT for more personal tasks and fewer work tasks.

Why it matters: That shift toward personal use could bolster OpenAI's emerging ad business, even as it keeps pursuing lucrative business customers.

State of play: OpenAI's usage data shows a steady decline in the amount of work-related messaging happening on consumer ChatGPT from July 2024 through December 2025.

• The data comes from 100,000 "de-identified" conversations on free and paid consumer accounts, meaning OpenAI researchers looked at anonymized messages to understand broad themes.

Friction point: Since ChatGPT's launch, evangelists who used free and paid consumer accounts for work tasks often convinced their companies to pay for the pricier enterprise accounts.

• Enterprise subscriptions are key to long-term revenue growth. If ChatGPT is being used as a buddy rather than a coworker, that could cut off a crucial pipeline.

Yes, but: Personal use can be ad gold, as evidenced by the success of every major social media platform.

• OpenAI is currently testing ads, while rival Anthropic has promised to remain ad-free.

The bottom line: More personal use could be good for business.

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman defended the amount of energy AI uses by comparing that to the amount of energy it takes to "train" a human. (TechCrunch)
• The Motion Picture Association sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance over the content generated by Seedance 2.0, its AI video tool. (Axios)
• AI has entered its "centaur" era. (Axios)

Ina here, very ready to be home after six weeks in Europe, but still savoring Olympic moments like interviewing Cookie Monster and Bert, being up against the glass as the U.S. men's and women's ice hockey teams won gold and even making a cameo in Saturday's figure skating gala (appropriately as a paparazza) at the start of Estonian skater Niina Petrokina's performance.