Sen. Elissa Slotkin cites AI 'weirdos' on data center pause, dings Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

Craig Mauger, The Detroit News on Oct 14, 2026

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LANSING, Mich. — U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin advocated for a temporary pause on data center developments during a Tuesday interview and said the public disagreed with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's embrace of the artificial intelligence projects.

The Michigan Democrat also said leaders of AI companies were "weirdos" saying things about the future of humanity that were "out of step with normal people." Slotkin made the comments during an event at the University of Chicago, where she was asked questions by journalist Astead Herndon.

“I think everyone is going to have to live with the decisions that they made," Slotkin responded when Herndon asked about Whitmer "welcoming" data centers. "These data centers were offering a lot of money. And that certainly was attractive to a lot of Midwestern states.

"I am just telling you … in the spirit of listening to people, that is not what the people want.”

Whitmer, who is also a Democrat, appeared at the June 1 groundbreaking celebration for a controversial 1.65 million-square-foot data center development in Saline Township. That project involves tech giants Oracle and OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.

Whitmer's office has touted it as the "largest economic project in Michigan history."

"I’m grateful to these cutting-edge companies for betting on Michigan, building on our work to compete for and win big projects in next-generation industries from cars and clean energy to semiconductors and batteries," Whitmer said in a statement issued in October 2025.

Whitmer is term-limited and can't run for another term as governor this year.

An array of Michigan politicians have spoken out against the Saline Township project, including Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed of Ann Arbor.

At a debate last week, El-Sayed said he would "love" for construction on the data center to stop. He has called for a "terms of engagement" for companies involved in data centers. El-Sayed previously told reporters that people "really effing hate data centers."

El-Sayed is running against Republican former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers of White Lake Township for one of Michigan's U.S. Senate seats. Rogers has called for a one-year moratorium on new data center developments.

Slotkin, who defeated Rogers in 2024, holds Michigan's other Senate seat.

During her Oct. 13 interview, she called for what she described as a temporary pause so people can figure out if data centers make sense in the communities where they're trying to locate and to determine their impact on water and electricity usage.

“We have to acknowledge that part of the fear of these data centers is because the people heading the AI companies are weirdos," Slotkin said. "They are talking in weird ways. They are talking in doomsday."

She appeared to be referencing a past interview in which PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel initially hesitated when asked about whether he would prefer the human race to endure.

Data centers and the artificial intelligence expansion that they enable have become key topics in the 2026 races. There are 70 operational data centers in Michigan, according to the website U.S. Data Center Map.

However, two more are under construction, and 15 more are planned, the website says. Two of those on the way are magnitudes larger in terms of capacity than anything that's currently functioning in the state.

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