SMALL TOWN VOTED NO ON AI DATA CENTER — OPENAI AND ORACLE BUILT IT ANYWAY Residents of Saline, Michigan voted to reject a massive AI data center that would have paved over prime farmland — then watched in horror as construction began weeks later, apparently without local government having the power to stop it. It’s a scene playing out across America: Big Tech’s insatiable appetite for AI infrastructure colliding headfirst with the farmers, families, and small-town elected officials who actually live there. In the battle between democracy and data centers, the servers are winning — and they’re not even pretending to ask nicely anymore. Keywords: AI data center, OpenAI Oracle data center, AI infrastructure, Michigan farmland, data center opposition