There’s home in these hills: West Virginia isn’t AI’s dumping ground

There’s a joke that West Virginia is always 25 years behind. We’re not up on the latest fashion, we drive old cars and some of us still use landlines. The reality is, roughly 80 percent of West Virginia households don’t have reliable, high-speed internet. We also have the lowest artificial intelligence use in the country.

Yet we’re now being dragged at breakneck speed into a digital future that isn’t ours.

AI is hollowing out our way of life in Appalachia. Data centers are leveling our hills and hollers into muddy expanses that flood our homes, pollute our rivers and poison our air. Families are being pushed out of the only places they’ve ever belonged.

As I stare into a forest filled with waving ferns, flitting juncos and towering cherry trees, I worry that AI is destroying the very places where the essence of humanity still exists. I live in Davis, West Virginia, a town of 600 people nestled in the Allegheny Highlands. We grow our food, build our homes, fix our cars and always pass things along before throwing them away. 

I can walk for miles in the woods without seeing a soul, but I can’t go to the grocery store without bumping into a friend. We recognize the value not only in our grit, but also in our kindness.

We may live small, but our lives are overflowing with connection, purpose and a steadfast sense of place. In a small town, people know your name. There’s room to carve out a niche and contribute........

© The Hill