NBC’s comedy show “Saturday Night Live” mocked “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary and his plans to build the massive Stratos <a href="https://axiomcore.info/can-the-ai-industry-persuade-data-center-opponents-by-getting-rid-of-ndas/" title="Can the AI industry persuade <a href="https://axiomcore.info/the-ai-data-center-build-out-has-made-the-us-more-reliant-than-ever-on-foreign-semiconductors/" title="The AI data center build-out has made the US more reliant than ever on foreign semiconductors”>data center opponents by getting rid of NDAs?”>data center in Utah — with a fake O’Leary calling it “the most evil name of all time.”
“All I want is to buy up 40,000 acres of God’s untouched splendor and replace it with a very loud computer that steals your job,” actor James Austin Johnson said Saturday night from the show’s “Weekend Update” desk, wearing a bald cap to impersonate O’Leary, aka “Mr. Wonderful.”
“Is it going to take up precious water? Absolutely. Is it going to provide a necessary service? Who’s to say?” Johnson’s O’Leary continued in a calm voice echoing the real O’Leary’s cadence. “But on the flip side, it’s going to make me a tremendous amount of money, and I think that’s great.”
Anchor Colin Jost then noted that most Americans don’t want data centers near them, and Johnson’s O’Leary agreed, saying, “that’s why I’m building one in Utah.”
He held up a map of Utah, with the Stratos site in Box Elder County ringed with a red target zone, which he said would be the area affected by noise and water pollution. “You have to understand — I don’t live there,” he said.
Jost countered that other people do live there. “You’re missing the point,” the fake O’Leary replied. “That’s not real to me. … Those are Sims.”
Johnson’s O’Leary then referenced one of the real O’Leary’s “Shark Tank” failures: “When I missed out on Scrub Daddy, I learned a very valuable lesson, which is I’m going to destroy the world.”
Jost asked about the defamation lawsuit O’Leary is facing from activists protesting the Stratos project. The fake O’Leary noted that “yes, I made the mildly inflammatory claim that every single person in Utah who opposes me is a paid Communist super-agent from China. Was I wrong? Perhaps. But just because they’re not doesn’t mean they aren’t.”
Last month, the real O’Leary’s lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that no “reasonable viewer” would have taken his claims that China funded his opposition as fact.
Johnson’s O’Leary concluded the three-minute skit with another observation based on the real O’Leary’s “Shark Tank” experience: “When I missed out on Bombas socks, I could have gotten mad. But instead I made a decision: I’m going to make the future go away. And we’re doing just that in Utah.”
Utahns by an overwhelming margin, 76%, don’t want more data centers built in the state, according to a survey released this month by Utah State University’s Community and Natural Re
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