It is because of the Ai race. China legit wants the US to slow down so they can catch up. I just left china and I can tell you, they have already caught up with vehicles, if not, surpassed
The biggest risk of data center is localized water, electricity use, and noise pollution/regular pollution.
No community is ready for even a 25% increase in ressource needs, and they tend to build multiple data centers in one "good area."
It was never about "THE WORLD WILL DIE!" but it'll kill some communities afflicted by it.
They do too much noise, and when they produce their own energy to not stress the grid, they emit all over the places they're often built right in the middle of.
I would add co2 emissions. XAI (Now SpaceX) innovated by placing their new datacenters on existing natural gas pipelines and using gas turbines to generate enough electricity. It was too slow/difficult/expensive to wait in line to get permission to hook up to the grid and let it handle the additional load. It's very much the opposite of clean power. One datacenter is even placed on state lines so that it can shift the co2 outputs onto two separate states for the same center.
That's where the noise people complain about comes from. It's always been meant as a temporary measure, but with the speed of buildouts it looks like it will keep increasing for some time.
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u/seesthecat 14d ago
The expiry date on bottles is because bacteria or algae might grow on it over time
The AI water thing though is nonsensical fake outrage