The escalating battles over artificial intelligence data center construction reveal a conflict that transcends environmental concerns about power and water consumption. While these practical issues have dominated discussion, the deeper tension centers on communities perceiving that transformative infrastructure decisions are being imposed upon them without meaningful consultation or agency. The resistance reflects broader anxieties about who controls the infrastructure underlying AI systems and who bears the societal costs of its rapid expansion. The episode highlighted several critical government-level AI developments that underscore these infrastructure stakes. The White House operates a secret artificial intelligence testing regime to advance government AI capabilities, while artificial intelligence agents have demonstrated the ability to attack real-world targets—raising security questions about autonomous systems. Meanwhile, the U.S. government is reportedly considering restrictions on Chinese data center components, reflecting intensifying geopolitical competition in AI infrastructure supply chains. These developments converge on a central challenge: successfully deploying AI infrastructure requires more than solving technical and environmental problems. It demands addressing fundamental questions about governance, decision-making authority, and how communities can exercise agency over technologies that reshape their environments and futures.