Data centers are now at the heart of a rapidly growing battle between Big Tech billionaire CEOs and ordinary people that those billionaires are used to treating like bugs to be swatted away. And increasingly it’s looking like politicians who find themselves on the billionaire side of data center disputes may find their political careers seriously affected, and not in a good way.
A recent statement I saw sums this up quite nicely:
“It’s cutting across all political, socioeconomic and cultural lines. These data centers are being opposed in every community where they are proposed, including communities which are heavily industrialized already, which are rural agricultural, which are heavily Republican, heavily Democrat, wealthy, poor, and everywhere in between.”
That’s from Marjorie Steele of the Michigan Economic Development Responsibility Alliance.
In fact, there’s pushback even in places like Virginia where there are more than — get this — 500 data centers already and applications for building many more. Virginia apparently has almost 35% of all the hyperscale (those really big) data centers globally. But even there, residents are now pushing back on new projects from Amazon and others.
Up until recently, politicians of both parties were able to claim that data centers were GREAT for their communities — mainly due to increased tax revenues. But the real costs to communities have often been swept under the rug. Massive electricity demand creating higher rates for everyone in the areas. Enormous water demands for cooling even in regions that already are short of water for their communities. Noise and air pollution from massive gas power generators that in some cases run 24/7, literally driving residents permanently from their homes in what were once beautiful, unspoiled rural areas.
Big Tech often claims there will be lots of new jobs related to these massive data centers. But while there can indeed be many jobs during the construction phases of these facilities, once they’re up and running it usually only takes a handful of workers to keep them going. Those other jobs just evaporate into thin air after construction is finished.
Keep in mind that these Big Tech billionaires are DESPERATE to find ways to make back their staggeringly large investments in AI systems, AI which so far by and large most businesses and individuals have found to be insipid and largely useless at best, and nothing they’d be willing to routinely pay for. And the Big Tech billionaires and their political sycophants will insist that we MUST have AI. That we MUST build those data centers. That society CAN’T advance without a continual DELUGE of Large Language Model Generative AI misinformation and other AI SLOP.
That’s all actually little more than pure propaganda. Very few people outside the industry itself asked for this AI garbage. Somehow the world has managed to survive and rapidly advance technologically without generative AI.
This category of AI is indeed a logical development in the normal course of tech evolution. But the current terrible situation was NOT inevitable, absent the greed and sometimes seemingly bizarre sci-fi mindsets behind much of the AI push.
The handwriting isn’t only on the wall, it’s written in giant letters in bright fluorescent paint. Politicians of either party who continue to ignore their constituents’ anger over data centers ruining communities, are increasingly going to find their own political careers cut short by the voters, and when it comes to this, even the Big Tech billionaires might not be able to save them.
–Lauren–