NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman's support for Elon Musk's idea to put AI data centers in **** e and power them with solar panels did not occur in a vacuum. It comes not just against a background of rising, bipartisan opposition to ground-based data centers but also the recent announcement of an immense, **** eX Starbase to be built in Louisiana.
Many people oppose data centers out of the same kind of "NIMBY" emotion that fueled opposition to nuclear power plants and hydraulic fracking. They view them as big, noisy eyesores that will consume a lot of electricity and water to the detriment of local communities.
Opposition to ground-based AI data centers is not universal. Trade unions, which foresee lots of jobs being created in their construction and operation, are warmly supporting them. On the other hand, if Meta's experiments with using robots at data centers pans out, those jobs may be fewer than many expect.
The reason that many people are opposed to AI data centers in their communities may have less to do with objective facts than a Chinese disinformation campaign to turn them against such facilities. Engadget reports that X uncovered a Chinese bot farm with 200,000 accounts, 200 of which were used to manipulate the debate about data centers.
It should be noted that the Chinese are going pedal to the metal to create their own data centers. As a totalitarian country, China is not concerned with public opinion one way or the other. Beijing is determined to dominate AI according to its ideology and interests.
#centers #opposition #people #communities
Many people oppose data centers out of the same kind of "NIMBY" emotion that fueled opposition to nuclear power plants and hydraulic fracking. They view them as big, noisy eyesores that will consume a lot of electricity and water to the detriment of local communities.
Opposition to ground-based AI data centers is not universal. Trade unions, which foresee lots of jobs being created in their construction and operation, are warmly supporting them. On the other hand, if Meta's experiments with using robots at data centers pans out, those jobs may be fewer than many expect.
The reason that many people are opposed to AI data centers in their communities may have less to do with objective facts than a Chinese disinformation campaign to turn them against such facilities. Engadget reports that X uncovered a Chinese bot farm with 200,000 accounts, 200 of which were used to manipulate the debate about data centers.
It should be noted that the Chinese are going pedal to the metal to create their own data centers. As a totalitarian country, China is not concerned with public opinion one way or the other. Beijing is determined to dominate AI according to its ideology and interests.
#centers #opposition #people #communities
2 days ago
