The article argues that AI data centres are essential to modern society and that claims of massive water, land and electricity use are exaggerated, noting closed-loop cooling, modest water consumption relative to agriculture, and opportunities to site facilities on reclaimed industrial or mining land.

Electricity demand, though rising, remains a small fraction of U.S. total use and can be met by building reliable coal, gas and nuclear capacity in advance, while “green” energy requirements for long transmission lines and backup generation are said to be the larger driver of higher prices.

The author warns that pausing or banning AI, as some politicians propose, would cede the field to adversaries who will not stop, and that the benefits in research, productivity and defence outweigh job displacement and surveillance risks if problems are managed.

China, Iran, North Korea and ISIS won’t pause their AI race. The US would be crazy to do so.  

A recent Friends of the Earth email wailed that URGENT ACTION is needed to prevent MASSIVE data centers from DESTROYING communities, the environment and property values, while tech billionaires get even richer!

Other opponents say artificial intelligence (AI) and data centers (DCs) gobble up rivers of water and terawatts of electricity, sprawl across landscapes, raise electricity prices, and help Big Brother spy on us. Similar assertions echo across the political spectrum and country.

It’s impossible to address all these complex issues in one article, but here’s a start.

First, how big data centers are and what their workloads and demands are depends on what they do. Older, conventional DCs manage purchases and other business applications. Streaming services handle vastly more data per second, especially during evenings and weekends.

Search engines need power to “crawl” through web pages and other sources to build indexes and answer questions at breakneck speed. AI requests require infinitely more computer power (for training, inferences, analyses, predictions and summaries) – and thus still more computers, electricity and cooling systems: hyperscales, hyperspeeds, hyper resource demands.

We must address these needs and solve the conflicts because we increasingly need AI and DCs.  

A data center is simply a building or warehouse filled with computers that generate........

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