It’s Tuesday, July 28. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: River Page on “secular sharia” and the latest victims of social media’s new morality police. Tyler Cowen on why you should stop worrying about AI-generated articles. Casey Babb interviews the Jews who are leaving Canada in droves. And much more.
But first: Is there a way out of the data-center bind?
America is living through a technological revolution—and the physical footprint of that revolution is data centers: hulking structures built on vast, multibillion-dollar campuses to store the computers needed to power the boom in artificial intelligence. These data centers are the biggest infrastructure build-out in U.S. history.
They are also becoming one of the most controversial issues in American politics. One recent survey found that just 14 percent of respondents are comfortable with a data center being built nearby. Across the country, more than 300 local governments have imposed bans or temporary moratoriums on data-center construction. Earlier this month, New York governor Kathy Hochul signed a one-year freeze on any new data centers.
Economically speaking, data centers are inevitable. Politically, they are anything but. This collision—between economic logic and political reality—touches almost everything, from who controls Washington next year to whether the U.S. or China wins the race for global supremacy. But with the stakes so high, is there a way out of the data-center bind? That’s what we asked Joe Nocera to investigate. He spoke to supporters and opponents across the country, the investors trying to get data centers built, the activists trying to stop them, and the policymakers searching for solutions. Here’s what he found.
Welcome to secular sharia: crowdsourced morality police, brought to you by social media. Its latest offenders—two lawyers caught kissing on a Central Park bench—had their lives upended in the time it took one stranger’s nosy video to go viral. “With secular sharia, any day can be Judgment Day,” writes River Page. Read his column on the phone-toting citizen shamers.
On Sunday, two Jewish-owned bakeries were attacked in the latest incident driving Canadian Jews to consider relocating from a country that no longer feels like home. The emigration reveals more than a crisis of antisemitism, writes Casey Babb, who spoke to some about why they are leaving. One said that “Canada is past the point of no return.”
Substack has launched a new feature that flags writing that looks like it was done by AI. Right now, chatbot-generated language might be a turnoff, but how long will that last, asks Tyler Cowen. In a couple of years, he argues, LLMs will become such skilled writers that these detectors won’t work—and people won’t care. Read his latest column on why you one day won’t mind if a robot wrote what you’re reading.
Calling all Abigail Shrier fanatics: Submit your questions for an AMA with Tough Love editor Freya Sanders. On July 30 at noon ET, Freya will coach you on how to get your letter into Abigail’s inbox—and answer your questions live. Only paid subscribers can submit questions via this thread—become one today for access to The Free Press Forum, Tough Love, livestreams, and much more.
Hi! I’m Freya, the editor of Tough Love. Firstly: Thank you everybody! One of my favorite things to do when I'm having a coffee break in the office is to read your comments under…
