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JC John Cook On GeekWire

“Here you have an unmanned AI-piloted aircraft that has a 39-foot wingspan that's going to be built in this community's backyard and sent off wherever to cause havoc. And the concern, at least among some citizens, was making sure that it was not a data center getting set up in their backyard.”

GeekWire · October 2026

“Here you have an unmanned AI-piloted aircraft that has a 39-foot wingspan that's going to be built in this community's backyard and sent off wherever to cause havoc. And the concern, at least among some citizens, was making sure that it was not a data center getting set up in their backyard.” — John Cook, GeekWire

The GeekWire hosts were discussing a planned factory south of Seattle for an AI-piloted fighter jet. The local city's FAQ, written in response to early feedback from residents, stresses that the facility "is not a data center".

Transcript

GeekWire Around 21:26 into the episode
John Cook

AI-piloted warfighting machine designed to replace the F-35.

Todd Bishop

And now, I've been talking with folks in the defense industry and the community, and they would say, wait a second, this is going to improve American safety. And they would disagree with what I just said. That said, you would think that that would be the big concern. But what did this FAQ say?

John Cook

Well, there was some clarification from based on the citizens' feedback that came in early on this. Program. And it very clearly states that this facility is not a data center. Which I sent that to you because I found that somewhat humorous as well. That here you have an unmanned AI-piloted aircraft that has a 39-foot wingspan that's going to be built in this community's backyard and sent off wherever to cause havoc. And the concern, at least among some citizens, was making sure that it was not a data center getting set up in their backyard. And so, yes, this was pretty unusual.

Todd Bishop

Yes, talk about Bizarro World. You know,

John Cook

well, Todd, you know, it reminds, I got to bring up another Cleveland story because it reminds me of when we were in Cleveland at the old dilapidated Westinghouse light bulb factory, which was in total disrepair on acres of space, massive facility with broken concrete all over the place. And there…

Todd Bishop

make light of the concerns over data centers. I understand the energy issues, the water usage. You know, the people at Amazon would disagree with a lot of those things, as would Microsoft. That's a whole other issue. I'm not making light of it, but just the level, the caricature that this debate…

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

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