Is The US United In An Anti-AI Focus? Or Enabling It, And All Of Its Consequences? - CleanTechnica

Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

I saw a title this morning — “It Took a While, but Americans May Have Found Something We All Hate” — and thought immediately that it must be referring to AI, or more specifically AI data centers. Indeed, that’s what it was about. However, as much as I appreciated the article and absolutely love the publication, the title irked me a little bit. If the country was united around hate for AI, we’d be in a very different situation.

In actuality, a lot of people are happy to use AI for all kinds of things. Companies are also tapping it obsessively. There’s a strong suspicion it’s not delivering a very good ROI at the moment and usage will cut back, but others argue the opposite. Without a doubt, all of the growth and hype has led to enormous expansion plans, which means unfathomably large data centers that use insane amounts of energy. That’s where we get to the focus of the article from The New Republic.

Yes, the huge data centers and their voracious electricity demands are spurring backlash in the places where they are being built or are planned for construction. However, that’s normal “NIMBY” behavior. The same happens with normal power plants (even clean ones) and industrial facilities. But these will still go through. Some will be blocked, but most will get built — and will even be given massive tax incentives and other subsidies from local municipalities.

Unfortunately, the fact is: these data centers and their associated power plants are producing insane levels of emissions that are going to cost us massively. As Steve Hanley recently reported, a data center planned in Utah “could produce enough heat to spike nighttime temperatures by as much as 28 degrees Fahrenheit [emphasis added] in the high desert valley where it will be located.” It will need about twice as much power as the rest of the state overall, and will increase Utah’s carbon emissions by 64%. In another article, published earlier today, he noted that new power plants for AI data centers will require as much electricity as all of Australia. Anyone claiming that the electricity demand and emissions from these AI data centers are not that bad and are counteracted by the societal benefits from AI, frankly, are being overly tech biased and not acknowledging the great harm being caused by these AI needs. Increasing energy requirements and emissions to this extent is looking likely to fry our planet to a degree that we really can’t handle. It is going to lead to catastrophes and deaths and destruction that we don’t have a history of seeing or understanding.

But are people going to stop using AI for all kinds of minimally helpful things? Are they going to keep using it to code, then spend as much time as they might have anyway checking that code and fixing errors? Are they going to continue using it for all manner of AI slop creation? Are corporations going to keep pouring billions of dollars into it because, well, you have to — it’s the new thing to do? None of that is uniting in our hate for it. To the contrary, it’s becoming broadly adopted and heavily overused.

“The astonishing grassroots protests against data centers give us something new: a mass mobilization focused squarely on protecting American hometowns from oligarchic exploitation,” The New Republic writes.

Hmm, well, my money is on the oligarchs. This is America, after all. Nothing is higher than the almighty dollar.

The article does point out that “71 percent of Americans oppose [data centers], including a majority of Republicans.” However, polls like this have shown for years that similar or even greater percentages of Americans support clean energy, oppose fossil fuels, and want to protect the environment — yet politicians in power bend much more to the power of money, especially on one side of the political aisle.

Perhaps it will be different with data centers. But I’m not betting on that. They may be opposed wherever they are being proposed, but that doesn’t mean they won’t get built. The power of the people in the United States is weaker than ever. Big Money knows they can just be patient and plow through. Eventually, money will win much more so than the interests of humans. And as long as we all keep using AI every day, Big Tech will decide it’s worthwhile to keep building data centers, no matter how many humans and trees and planets have to be trampled in the process.

“According to Data Center Watch, protest groups against data centers now number an eye-popping 833 across 49 states. That’s a genuine movement. For more than a year, the protests have roused corners of America that not long ago were stuck in tribal stalemates focused on the personality of Trump.” Cool. Let me know when they win a battle, or half the battles they are fighting.

Am I being an old, grumpy defeatist? Maybe. Go join one of these protest groups and prove me wrong.

Oh, there is an update in the article on these protest groups winning battles (or at least delaying a victory for the other side): “And the protests are surprisingly tactical. When it comes to affecting policy, they put the bigger No Kings demonstrations, which largely exist to express anger and ideological affiliation, in the shade. According to a watchdog group, data center opponents blocked or slowed more than 75 projects nationwide, worth $130 billion, between January and March alone. What’s more, 141 moratoria have been proposed at local, county, state, and national levels. And dozens of cities have actually implemented temporary bans, including Birmingham, Alabama; New Orleans; and Tulsa, Oklahoma.”

Hmm. Should I have hope? Is this grassroots movement enough to cancel, rather than just delay or shift around, polluting data centers? Is this right-plus-left movement able to defeat the oligarchs who own and run the Big Tech companies? I guess I’m just a year or two too old to have faith. But I have a slim ounce of hope.

I will say, the article by Virginia Heffernan is beautifully written. It’s a good piece. Check it out for more on the topic and a more inspirational take.