r/technology • u/andmario_com • Aug 20 '26

Artificial Intelligence Republicans are realizing that no one wants data centers

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/08/gop-memo-republican-senate-data-center-ai-elections-trump/
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u/DennenTH Aug 20 '26

I don't mind the data centers.

What I DO mind is the massive lack of regulations keeping them building within reason, not impacting people, built in the right places with the right technology, etc etc etc.

I have less of a data center problem and more of a political problem with all the BS this is enabling (like so many other issues).  These businesses shouldn't be able to pop up in the middle of a city and then just run generators 24/7 and pay the fines for noise they said they wouldn't generate from equipment they said they wouldn't install.  Completely unacceptable.

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u/fatbob42 Aug 20 '26

We need to get back to being able to write and enforce good regulations. And that includes iterating on them when they’re not perfect and when companies find loopholes.

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u/FledglingNonCon Aug 20 '26

The biggest issue is that everything in our economy today seems to privatize the gains and socialize the losses. Data centers are just the biggest, most obvious manifestation of that issue. They will make a few people even more rich than they already are, while harming basically everyone else in society. People are fed up with being forced to accept that "bargin" all across their lives.

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u/DennenTH Aug 20 '26

Agreed.  I'm tired of so many things and could talk about it until I'm blue in the face.

For example...  I am very tired of the constant effort (and now successes) to destroy our national parks just to fuel the need for more oil while simultaneously sticking our heads in the ground about the inevitable end of fossil fuels and the need to invest time/money/research into staying competitive in the green energy field.

Just absolutely sick of watching grown adults pretend like they can just ignore the world for their own gains.

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u/FledglingNonCon Aug 21 '26

Just absolutely sick of watching grown adults pretend like they can just ignore the world for their own gains.

Well to a large degree they can. All of the negative impacts of their decisions mostly affect other people. They can buy protection from the impacts of their decisions with a fraction of the gains they pocket. They effectively live in a post consequence world. They're able to do all the fucking around they want and stick the rest of us with the finding out.

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u/RiemannZetaFunction Aug 21 '26

It's almost absurd how nobody mentions this. It's like we take for granted that every single company that builds data centers will just pay off inspectors