There's a thing happening the past few years of the tech companies rushing around trying to build data centers everywhere. Normally, a data center is a building - oft-times a warehouse - where companies can maintain their servers, networks, and other business functions.
Thing is, most of these newer data centers are built to handle artificial intelligence (AI), which requires more processing speed and power that demands more electricity - and water for coolant - to where the local communities are shoved out of their own access to such resources. These data centers also take up more land than ever before, squeezing out communities looking to expand housing, maintain farmland, or protect fragile ecosystems.
It's a problem that's literally developing in my back yard, as there's a corporation trying to build a large data center in nearby Fort Meade where the city council approved a deal in spite of the large and angry turnout of locals who opposed it (via Chad Mills at ABC Channel 28):
The Fort Meade City Commission unanimously approved a controversial development agreement Tuesday night, which advances a massive data center proposal that has drawn weeks of concern from neighbors, especially over water use and the project’s long-term impact on the city.
The vote clears a major hurdle for Stonebridge’s proposed data center campus, planned for more than 1,300 acres northwest of downtown. The project calls for up to 4.4 million square feet of development and, if ultimately built out, could become one of the largest data center campuses of its kind in Florida.
Tuesday’s meeting stretched for hours, with many in the crowd speaking in opposition before commissioners cast their votes.
Mayor Jaret Landon Williams told the crowd the city was not deciding whether a data center could be built on the site. He described Tuesday’s vote as approval of the development agreement tied to a project that had already won land use and zoning approvals during a meeting last June...
What I can tell you about Fort Meade is that it's a small community in a very rural part of the county, where most of the surrounding lakes are carved-out shallow remnants of where phosphate mining took place, meaning there's not a lot of water resources to rely on. Stonebridge's people were claiming they'll only take up 50,000 gallons a day for "potable" use only, but that's still an insane amount of consumption (and I don't believe them when they're claiming they will recycle water coolant: for what I know, data centers evaporate every last drop).
Internet connectivity out there is meager at best, begging the question how well that AI data center can reach the web. And the electric grid out that way arguably can't handle an energy hog of that scale. They're going to have to add more power stations (or do something like build a solar panel farm to support it). It's like the only reason the Stonebridge corporation wants to build out there is because there's not a lot of residents who could complain when things go bad.
If you read Mills' article above, you'll see photos of the city hall turnout by locals to where the room was packed and standing room only: I've rarely seen a turnout for local issues like that before. It should have been a warning to the city council, but they ignored it as well as ignoring the evidence that a lot of Americans across the nation hate the spread of data centers (via Jeffrey M. Jones at the Gallup news site):
Seven in 10 Americans oppose constructing data centers for artificial intelligence in their local area, including nearly half, 48%, who are strongly opposed. Barely a quarter favor these projects, with 7% strongly in favor.
These results, from a March 2-18 Gallup survey, represent the first time Gallup has asked about data center construction, a topic that has met fierce opposition from local residents in many parts of the country. These data centers house computing equipment that helps power AI technology used by businesses, universities and other institutions. The centers cover large areas of land, require extensive amounts of electricity to operate and need substantial water to cool the equipment, raising concerns about their impact on the environment and local electric bills...
The March survey asked people to rate their level of concern about the environmental impact of AI data centers. Forty-six percent say they worry a great deal and 24% a fair amount, largely mirroring the degrees of opposition to data center construction.
To gain a deeper understanding of people’s reasons for favoring or opposing data center construction in their area, Gallup asked an open-ended question on an April web survey using the Gallup Panel. Americans who favor the building of a data center in their area mostly cite the potential economic benefits. Opponents of data centers have more varied reasons for their position, but they focus mostly on environmental concerns.
Half of opponents mention data centers’ excessive use of resources, including 18% each mentioning their use of water and energy. Sixteen percent mention a related environmental concern of pollution, including noise pollution and air and water pollution...
Most of the remaining opposition stems from general or specific concerns about artificial intelligence.
Speaking of, the growing disdain towards AI especially as the "techbro" elites push the technology is growing louder, even at college graduation ceremonies (from Mirna Alsharif and Austin Mullen at NBC News):
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed multiple times Friday while discussing artificial intelligence during a commencement speech at the University of Arizona.
Schmidt, who led Google for a decade, opened his remarks by reflecting on his own student years and the rise of the computer, — a device named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” in 1982. He traced its evolution into the laptop and smartphone and its proliferation through the internet and social media...
Schmidt then drew a parallel between artificial intelligence and the transformative impact of the computer — and was immediately met with boos.
“I know what many of you are feeling about that. I can hear you,” Schmidt said, addressing the crowd as many continued to boo him. “There is a fear ... there is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating, that the climate is breaking, that politics is fractured, and that you are inheriting a mess that you did not create, and I understand that fear.”
No, Schmidt, I don't think you understood that fear. It's not so much fear about losing jobs as it is fear of drowning in slop.
The disdain towards AI isn't entirely built on hostility towards technology overall: nearly everyone accepts the usefulness of things like smartphones and computers. Most of the ire is coming from getting overwhelmed - having it shoved almost literally down our throats - by high-tech oligarchs openly desperate to get people to buy their latest shiny toy that doesn't even work well.
I wrote about Artificial Intelligence over at my librarian blog last year, as the use of AI in research and document creation is showing up more in my profession:
This is a serious problem facing librarians and the overall reference/research profession. As a reference librarian it is (maybe was now) my job to ensure the proper information got to the people asking for it, that the materials were well-vetted, fact-checked, and proven. I was in a lot of trouble if I gave people the wrong info.
Now were we are with AI as a research "tool" except that people are expecting it to be 100 percent accurate; when AI still has problems seeing beyond the poor data getting uploaded, or understanding that the algorithms that produced those results might have been in error. It doesn't help if a patron's existing bias blinds them to the factual information that does come up: they'll take the bad info if it fits their world-view (even if it kills them).
Nothing since then has changed: AI is still faulty, still creating fake data, still untrustworthy, still a major health risk. And yet we are all getting AI shoved into our daily lives - in our browsers, our email services, even house appliances - when we didn't ask or even need them.
We're all in danger with this rush to an AI future that doesn't even look like it will work as promised.
Gods - or else Tech Support - help us.
