America’s biggest obstacle in the technology race with China may not be Beijing, but growing resistance to new data centers and the power needed to run them, according to Palantir’s chief technology officer.

«The proximate issues are definitely going to be power and backlash against data centers,» Shyam Sankar said in an interview with Fox News Digital at Palantir’s American Builder Summit.

Sankar, whose company builds software for the Pentagon, intelligence agencies and major manufacturers, argued the U.S. risks slowing its own technological progress more than falling behind Beijing.

«The only threat to AI generating prosperity for America is suicide, not homicide.»

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The U.S. and China are pouring billions into the race to dominate artificial intelligence, viewing the technology as central to economic growth, military power and geopolitical influence. Winning that race depends on an enormous buildout of data centers, power generation and transmission infrastructure to support increasingly capable systems. 

But those projects have drawn growing resistance from communities worried about electricity demand, water use and whether the benefits will outweigh the costs.

Companies have raced to build new data centers to support a wave of new computing infrastructure, fueling a nationwide expansion that also has sparked growing local opposition. The issue has spilled into the 2026 midterm campaigns, with candidates in battleground states such as Pennsylvania running ads focused on the economic and environmental effects of the projects.

Residents have raised concerns about electricity demand, water consumption, noise, traffic and whether utility customers will ultimately bear the cost of expanding the power grid. Some projects have been delayed or canceled, while lawmakers in several states have proposed restrictions or moratoriums on new facilities.

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Some developers have responded by pairing new data centers with dedicated power generation rather than relying entirely on the electric grid.

Sankar argues those debates risk slowing the industrial gains the technology can already deliver. He pointed to one submarine-parts manufacturer that cut production planning from two weeks to less than an hour, freeing enough capacity to add a third shift.

«There is no one on that shift who thinks, ‘Hey, I got my job because of AI,’ but that’s actually what happened,» he said.

Protestors hold up «Stop data centers» signs, on the day of President Donald Trump’s speech at the General Motors Proving Ground, in Milford, Michigan, July 27, 2026. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters)

The summit itself appeared designed to counter one of the AI industry’s biggest public relations challenges: fears that technology will replace jobs. Rather than showcasing increasingly capable AI models, Palantir filled the stage with factory workers, healthcare workers and military personnel demonstrating software they had built to solve problems in their own workplaces.

Sankar argued the AI industry has become overly focused on pursuing artificial general intelligence, or AGI, rather than deploying today’s AI systems across the economy.

Artificial general intelligence, or AGI, refers to a still-theoretical system capable of performing a broad range of intellectual tasks at or beyond human level, rather than excelling mainly at narrower tasks such as writing, coding or image analysis.

He compared the current moment to the early days of electricity, arguing that while technology already exists, businesses have yet to reorganize themselves around it.

«The AI we have is powerful enough that it should have created more prosperity and value,» he said. «The only reason it hasn’t yet is not a failing of the technology, it’s a lack of our national will to push and invest in diffusing the technology through our economy.»

«We shouldn’t lose the plot in pining away for a machine god,» he added.

The summit brought together a cohort of Palantir’s American Tech Fellowship, where workers from industries including manufacturing, healthcare and defense demonstrated AI applications they had built for use in their jobs.

The demonstrations were intended to illustrate Sankar’s contention: that AI will make workers more productive than ever rather than replace them.

That runs against much of the public sentiment, where workers across industries have begun to wonder how long until their jobs will be done by a machine.

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«How many people have actually, at the front line, have experienced AI and how it’s changed their job versus how many people are imbibing the fear-mongering from the social media feed, which is partially a Chinese psyop as well.»

El trabajo a través de plataformas digitales se ha consolidado en Guatemala como una opción relevante para generar ingresos, especialmente para jóvenes y personas que encuentran barreras para acceder al empleo formal. Servicios como transporte, reparto, hospedaje, trabajo freelance y comercio electrónico han crecido en los últimos años, posicionándose como alternativas para quienes necesitan fuentes de ingreso flexibles y accesibles.

Según el Observatorio Centroamericano de Violencia Laboral, alrededor de 5.3 millones de personas trabajaban en el sector informal en 2025, lo que representa el 66% de la población económicamente activa. En este contexto, las plataformas digitales representan una vía para incorporarse al mercado laboral, aunque no están exentas de retos.

El boletín difundido por la Organización de Mujeres Salvadoreñas por la Paz (ORMUSA) advierte que estas modalidades de empleo presentan desafíos importantes. Entre ellos se destacan la falta de protección social, la inestabilidad de los ingresos y la precariedad de las condiciones laborales para quienes dependen de las plataformas como fuente principal o complementaria de sustento.

La participación de mujeres en las plataformas digitales continúa siendo menor que la de los hombres, lo que evidencia la persistencia de brechas de género en el acceso y las oportunidades laborales. Esta desigualdad refleja tendencias presentes en otros sectores y subraya la necesidad de políticas públicas que fomenten la equidad y mejoren las condiciones laborales para todos los trabajadores de la economía digital.

El análisis de ORMUSA y organizaciones aliadas enfatiza la urgencia de fortalecer la protección social y la estabilidad laboral en el sector de plataformas digitales, así como de promover la inclusión de las mujeres para avanzar hacia un empleo más justo en Guatemala.

En junio, la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT) aprobó en Ginebra un convenio para proteger a los trabajadores de plataformas digitales y equipararlos con el resto de los empleados en derechos como salario mínimo, seguridad social y resguardo frente al despido, una decisión que busca responder a la expansión de un modelo laboral transnacional y que entrará en vigor 12 meses después de que al menos dos Estados miembros lo ratifiquen.

La votación en la 114ª Conferencia Internacional del Trabajo se resolvió con 406 votos a favor, ocho en contra y 36 abstenciones, según informó el Diario de Centro América. El acuerdo fue respaldado por representantes de gobiernos, sindicatos y empleadores en la asamblea anual de la organización.

El texto fue adoptado tras años de debate y alcanza a trabajadores como conductores de aplicaciones internacionales. El objetivo es que sus condiciones no queden por fuera de estándares ya reconocidos para otros asalariados.

Sukti Dasgupta, directora del Departamento de Condiciones de Trabajo e Igualdad de la OIT, explicó que el nuevo instrumento pretende llevar derechos y beneficios a personas que no están en una relación laboral formal y que hasta ahora quedaban en gran medida fuera de marcos concebidos para asalariados. Añadió que el convenio busca una correcta clasificación de la relación laboral en un entorno digital donde muchos trabajadores no tienen contratación formal.

Dasgupta dijo que tras lo escuchado en el plenario parece haber suficiente interés para alcanzar con rapidez las dos ratificaciones necesarias. La funcionaria añadió que, incluso si algunos países no lo ratifican, el convenio servirá como orientación normativa general. En los Estados que sí lo adopten, la Organización Internacional del Trabajo podrá intervenir mediante su mecanismo de supervisión si se presentan denuncias por incumplimientos.

One of the most outspoken members of the «Squad» is plotting her return to Congress as a wave of socialist insurgency continues to batter establishment Democrats across the country.

Former Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., is running to get her old seat back representing Missouri’s 1st Congressional District after losing to incumbent Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Mo., in November 2024. It’s another battle in the wider civil war that’s taking place within the Democratic Party.

Missouri’s primary elections are this Tuesday, and Bush has spent weeks blasting Bell for his pro-Israel stance and accusing him of being tied too closely to Republicans.

In her latest ad released on Thursday, Bush accused Bell of not doing enough to help St. Louis recover from a May 2025 tornado and instead «jetting off to Israel with AIPAC.»

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She posted on X alongside the ad, «When the disaster caused $1.6 billion in damages and took several lives, Wesley responded by hopping on a flight to Israel funded by Trump’s donors less than 90 days later.»

Earlier this month, she posted, «Wesley Bell is a former Republican campaign manager who is bought and paid for by AIPAC. On August 4th, we’re going back to DC, and we’ll do it with no corporate cash or AIPAC-funded trips.»

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When reached for comment on Bush’s criticism, Bell’s campaign pointed Fox News Digital to a recent debate between the two on St. Louis Public Radio, specifically Bell’s response to a question on the tornado.

«Once the tornado hit here, I got right to work. I was on the ground immediately, but also working with our delegation, which, you all know, is six Republicans and only myself and [Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo.],» Bell said. «And so I got on the phone with each one of them. Sometimes that meant sitting in their offices as well, to explain to them how important it was for them to join me in making certain that St. Louis got the resources that folks here needed. So I’m proud of the fact that we were able to get over $200 million and counting in FEMA disaster relief, but we still got more to do.»

Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Mo., is defending his seat against former Rep. Cori Bush. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)

Bell’s campaign also shared an ad with Fox News Digital in which a constituent called Bush’s attacks on Bell «just politics» while defending his response to the tornado.

«Wesley Bell’s taken on Trump. He’s fighting for me and my neighbors,» the constituent said.

The issue of U.S.-Israel relations has been fueling an ever-growing fracture within the Democratic Party since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the Jewish nation-state.

The two-term progressive firebrand was one of Congress’ harshest critics of Israel and its operation in Gaza, well before it became a more mainstream position in the party. She had accused Israel’s government of waging a genocide on Palestinians and consistently voted against emergency funding for the Middle Eastern ally.

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Bell is a more pragmatic Democrat who previously served as a county prosecutor.

On Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, 2025, Democratic Socialists of America members marched in Washington, D.C., carrying signs that said, «SOCIALISM BEATS FASCISM,» equating the incoming Trump administration to «fascism.» (Asra Q. Nomani/Fox News Digital)

Bush blamed her narrow 2024 loss to Bell on hundreds of thousands of dollars spent by pro-Israel groups, including those affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), from outside the district.

The rematch comes as candidates linked to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) continue to shake up primaries across the country.

DSA candidates are posing a challenge for more establishment Democrats in gubernatorial races like Wisconsin and a Senate race in Michigan, and have even successfully toppled House Democratic incumbents in New York and Colorado.

Bush is also a member of the DSA.