… this is all nonsense

Sounds a bit communist to me, what do you want China to win!?

I saw an article that reminded me of this thread:

Trump says AI data center opponents want to be 'backwards and poor'

Technology makes everything cheaper

Skynet or sky high inflation,,,,,

Your choice

Nothing stops the train

Build them in the middle of the biggest cities. Plenty of water and electricity there. Just so happens that?s where most of the data is generated. China would never bomb our cities would they? They want to build a center where I live. There?s no gas, water, sewer or transmission lines nearby. Not even cable tv.. if they built the center it would use more power than what 80% of our county uses now. So when they turn their plant on 80% of our houses will go dark.

Can the U.S. political system meet the challenges of our rapidly changing age? The answer is far from certain, and the latest evidence for pessimism is the election-year panic over data centers.

The centers that look like large warehouses are crucial for artificial intelligence. The U.S. is in an AI competition with China, which won?t be a benevolent force if the U.S. falls behind. Without the energy and the data centers to power it, America?s safety and prosperity will be compromised.

Yet watching the election campaign, you?d think data centers are the biggest problem America faces. We?re running scared over investment that creates jobs and pays local property taxes.

***
The political backlash started on the left, and Bernie Sanders now wants a nationwide halt to new data centers. But Democrats in Senate races across the country are signing up for some version of a slowdown. In Ohio Sherrod Brown is making the issue the center of his comeback bid against appointed GOP Sen. Jon Husted.

Even politicians who have supported data centers are turning. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker once courted data centers but now has turned them a cold shoulder. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has a huge lead in his re-election campaign, this month issued an executive order restricting their development.

Republicans are also getting in on the act. GOP Rep. Tom Tiffany is running ads in Wisconsin in his campaign for Governor calling his opponent ?Data Center David Crowley.? ?Our lakes run dry, family farms paved over,? says the fear-mongering spot.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in August paused new construction pending the completion of a statewide audit, citing concerns about data center power and water use. He blamed AI firms: ?They basically dug their own grave for the problem that?s been caused for them and that?s why they got the backlash they deserve.?

It?s true the AI industry has hurt its own cause by fueling speculative anxiety about mass unemployment. AI developers have also failed to explain how data centers benefit local communities. But the larger failure has been the lack of political leadership in explaining the technological and economic transition now underway and how to address it.

On data centers, there?s a strong case to be made. The U.S. has more than 5,400 data centers, which are the backbone of the internet and power the apps on your smartphone. Data centers enable Zoom meetings, online food deliveries, video streaming, instant retail stock trading and more. If data centers went dark, so would the modern economy.

New large-scale data centers are needed to train and run AI models, and more than chatbots. Businesses large and small use AI to boost productivity, which lets them pay workers more. Steel maker Cleveland-Cliffs recently announced an upgrade to an Ohio plant that will incorporate AI to improve efficiency.

Utilities use AI to prepare for natural disasters and reduce power outages. AI models are helping diagnose cancer at earlier stages and develop cures. Data centers bring high-paying construction jobs, and skilled blue-collar workers are needed to run them.

If data centers disappeared from Loudoun County, Va.?known as Data Center Alley?homeowners would need to pay $5,800 more a year in property tax for the same government services, according to one analysis. Teachers in Louisiana?s Richland Parish this year received bonuses up to $50,000 thanks to tax revenue from Meta?s AI data center.

Data centers also generate scant pollution. Their CO2 emissions mainly stem from the natural gas plants that power them. But modern gas generators produce upward of 90% less fine particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide than a steel mill.

Data centers also deploy efficient systems to recirculate wastewater, so they don?t affect the supply of drinking water. Microsoft?s new data center in Wisconsin will use about only four Olympic swimming pools of water this year, half as much as a car wash. Golf courses use about 30 times more water than data centers.

Americans are understandably concerned about rising electric bills, but data centers aren?t the culprit. Average electric rates nationwide have increased roughly in line with inflation since 2016, with larger increases in the Northeast and California, largely because of climate policies such as net-metering that lets homes with solar panels free-load on the grid. A study by the Electric Power Research Institute found that data centers between 2015 and 2024 reduced residential rates by spreading the grid?s fixed costs over a larger electric load.

In any event, most data center developers have agreed to cover the incremental costs they add to the grid. The Trump Administration was a leader here in bringing AI firms, utilities and political actors together, and most AI firms have cooperated.

The surge of opposition to data centers reflects misinformation and anxiety about the future more than it does reality. Both are driven in part by the same people who have sought to block shale fracking, liquefied natural gas exports and other projects that enhance American prosperity and national security.

Mr. Trump is finally speaking up, with a Truth Social post Monday pointing out that data centers will provide ?far lower taxes and jobs all over the place.? Please keep it up. The President rightly notes that if the bipartisan campaign against data centers succeeds, the winner will be the Chinese Communist Party.

^^^^^ I was out on McDonald?s once they got rid of the Texas Home Style Burger

I don't ever remember that one. It must have been over 52 years ago......

Where will the money come from thats going to fund this property tax windfall?

AI AI AI. I have no clue how my life will be improved. Where is all the money going to come from? I have been on 4 different data center construction sites. The money being spent is mind boggling.