If cooling your house down during this summer’s heat wave is costing you an arm and a leg, you can blame AI.

Tech companies plan to spend trillions to feed AI’s voracious appetite for energy, but normal Americans are eating the cost of that increased demand.

Earlier this summer, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman declared that a “significant fraction of the power on Earth” should be dedicated to running AI. OpenAI and its competitors have been raising and spending mind-boggling sums on data centers capable of powering their near-future AI plans, which stand to make the world’s richest companies even richer. Unfortunately, all of that energy consumption is starting to trickle down to the average American.

Compared to last year, consumers paid 5.5% more for electricity in 2025, a rate increase that outstrips inflation during the same period. The average American paid $144 in 2024 for their........

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