At the G20 event in Chapel Hill, North Carolina this week, tech leaders such as OpenAI's Sam Altman spoke enthusiastically about AI's capabilities and the need to build more data centers. Outside the venue, however, protestors delivered a sharply different message — a split that mirrors the broader national debate over the industry's rapid physical expansion.

In a "fireside chat" with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Altman described AI as "incredible magic of intelligence in a bottle" while cautioning that AI's infrastructure requirements would continue to expand.

"Even with great gains in efficiency, we are going to need to build much more infrastructure, unless we want this to be a highly priced model, which we don't," he added, according to local news outlet the News & Observer.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp was also present, along with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and both projected similarly positive messages. Tesla CEO Elon Musk addressed the gathering by conference call.

Beyond the security perimeter just outside the Carolina Inn — the hotel on the campus of the University of North Carolina where the tech leaders met — hundreds of protestors assembled Wednesday morning to voice their displeasure with AI, data centers, and the billionaires behind them, among other concerns.

"We are mad because AI data centers are polluting the water and the air in many communities," said Rob, a college student who asked to be identified only by his first name.

Others, such as Melisande Timblin, a 2005 graduate of the university, criticized what she described as false promises of long-term employment from data center developers.

"They come in and they sell them a big lie. They say we're going to build these data centers. It's going to provide hundreds of jobs building this data center. Okay, you're going to give these people jobs for just a few years while you build it," Timblin told Fortune.

The contrast between the scenes inside and outside the G20 underscores the growing reputational challenge facing AI as data centers spread nationwide amid escalating protests. For an industry whose leaders have staked enormous investments on continued buildout — with more than 3,000 additional data centers planned or under construction — that public skepticism presents a political headwind that executives can no longer ignore.

Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have both softened earlier dire warnings about AI-driven job displacement — warnings that had partly fueled the technology's unpopularity. Amodei once made waves by predicting AI could replace 50% of white-collar jobs, but more recently has described AI as a multiplier of jobs. Altman said this year that AI is unlikely to trigger a "jobs apocalypse."

Still, Amodei acknowledged last month that AI faces a crisis of trust among the general public, saying the technology must deliver a breakthrough — such as curing cancer — to earn it back.

Because they are the most visible manifestation of AI, data centers have become the focal point of protests nationwide. Residents across the country have pushed back against projects over concerns about facilities' demand for electricity and water, as well as the potential for pollution.

Activists staged 142 demonstrations against data centers across 42 states in July alone, Reuters reported. Public opinion appears strongly on their side: a poll from the Economist and YouGov earlier this week found that two-thirds of Americans oppose building a data center in their local area.

Nationwide, data centers have become a major midterm election issue on both sides of the aisle. Even in Texas — the state with the second-most data centers in the country — Republican Gov. Greg Abbott recently introduced stricter rules for data centers amid a close re-election race. Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is locked in a tight contest for a Senate seat, has also recently hardened his stance against data centers. How that pressure translates into policy after November — whether through siting restrictions, utility rules, or local zoning — remains one of the key questions hanging over the industry's buildout plans.

In North Carolina, where the Chapel Hill G20 meeting took place, dozens of local governments have adopted moratoriums or tighter zoning rules as data center proposals spread across the state.

At the same time, more than 3,000 data centers are planned or under construction, adding to the approximately 4,000 already in existence, according to the Associated Press.

Executives argue that delivering more capable AI to more people requires additional infrastructure development, which is also driving demand for construction jobs and related services. Manufacturers of construction equipment are booming as well. Signs of mass AI-driven job displacement have yet to materialize.

In places like Virginia's Loudoun County — home to the highest concentration of data centers in the world — officials have been able to lower residential property tax rates every year for the past decade because the reductions were offset by income from data centers in the area.

Not everyone outside the Carolina Inn on Wednesday was opposed to AI itself. John Montavon, a local resident and former teacher, said he was not anti-technology and that it could be used in both "positive and negative ways." Still, he questioned whether the people inside the venue should be entrusted with determining how the technology develops.

"I'm concerned about the future of our communities," Montavon told Fortune.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.