# Pelosi's successor targets AI as data centers face power crisis

> Scott Wiener enters Congress ready to regulate AI, while the real backlash against data centers may be about electricity, not progress.
- Title: Pelosi's successor targets AI as data centers face power…
- Summary: Scott Wiener enters Congress ready to regulate AI, while the real backlash against data centers may be about electricity, not progress.
- Keywords: scott wiener, nancy pelosi, san francisco, ai regulation, data centers, ashburn virginia, electricity demand, congress, MIT Technology Review
- Source: MIT Technology Review — https://technologyreview.com/2026/11/10/1148150/the-download-pelosi-successor-ai-regulation-data-center-backlash
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: scott wiener, nancy pelosi, san francisco, ai regulation, data centers, ashburn virginia, electricity demand, congress, technology, science
## Wiener wins Pelosi's San Francisco seat
Scott Wiener, a California state senator who authored AI risk legislation, won a tight congressional race for Nancy Pelosi's open San Francisco seat.
## Wiener plans to slow AI development
Hours after his victory, Wiener told MIT Technology Review he used the phrase recursive self-improvement half a dozen times during a twenty-minute conversation.
## We need to slow this down
Wiener said AI is moving very quickly and we could sleepwalk into a disaster, though he describes himself as only cautiously optimistic about Congress's ability to rein in AI.

> We need to slow this down. Because it's moving very quickly, and we could sleepwalk into a disaster.
## Data Center Alley faces backlash
As voters went to the polls last week, reporter James O'Donnell visited Ashburn, Virginia, part of Data Center Alley, the world's largest data center hub.
## Big Tech frames this as culture war
Big Tech has framed the data center uproar as a culture war over progress, but the real fault line may be electricity.
## Electricity is the real dividing line
Drawing electricity from the grid or generating it onsite provokes different forms of backlash. The industry cannot escape the consequences of its enormous appetite for electricity.
## Wiener plans federal AI action
Wiener plans to play a key role in setting federal AI policy, though the article does not specify what legislative steps he will take.
## Data center image problem persists
The industry can improve its image, but it cannot escape the consequences of its enormous appetite for electricity, which remains the core issue.
## Key takeaway

California congressman Scott Wiener plans to push federal AI regulation after winning Nancy Pelosi's seat, as data center opposition centers on electricity demand rather than ideology.