Fox News forced into rare on-air apology after Kevin O’Leary's AI data center meltdown
Fox News has been forced to broadcast a rare on-air apology after investor and star of Shark Tank Kevin O’Leary made unsupported claims about people opposing his huge AI data center project.
The wealthy entrepreneur and TV personality, who is also nicknamed Mr Wonderful, has been working on creating an AI campus in Utah, with original plans suggesting it could cover a whopping 10,000 acres of land.
Supporters of the project say that this could strengthen the US’ position with the AI industry, while critics claim that this could have a devastating environmental impact.
However, the Canadian businessman got himself into hot water on air last month when he accused naysayers of having links to China without any evidence.
This resulted in Fox News broadcasting a correction on four different programs.
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During a segment of Johnny Joey Jones’ show, The Big Weekend Show, he stated of O’Leary: “He made certain claims relating to the opponents of his project. Mr. O’Leary has now corrected the record.”
Jones went on to say that there was ‘no evidence’ that critics of the AI project ‘are funded by China or the Chinese communist party’.
O’Leary also took to social media to set the record straight, with his post on X, formerly Twitter, saying: “Recently I appeared on various news programs and would like to clarify that I have no evidence that Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, Gabrielle Finlayson, Taylor Knuth or Josh Kanter are funded by China or the Chinese Communist Party.”
Kevin O’Leary’s major AI project in Utah
So, what would the businessman’s AI project entail exactly? Well, O’Leary has his eyes set on a 40,000 acre site which would house an AI and national security data center.
Known as the Stratos Project, it would run on 9 gigawatts of power, and has faced backlash from the local community.
Many have cited concerns over the center’s potential water use, the noise, and energy costs which could have a knock-on effect on residents.
Some people have taken to social media themselves to voice their own opinions on the matter, with one person saying: “We cannot allow them to build these data centers even if they use better technology until AI is regulated and possibly nationalized. The tech billionaires building them today and our current government do not have good intentions for the people.”
And another wrote: “We've been fighting this tooth and nail, and our rage at this proposal was reflected in yesterday's Primary voting. NOBODY wants this here, except those who stand to benefit financially (and tremendously) at the expense of literally everyone else.”