Voters in at least 29 jurisdictions across the country passed bans or restrictions on data centers Tuesday, reflecting the widespread public revulsion to the facilities and adding to the growing pushback on the ambitions of the artificial intelligence industry.
Data center construction also suffered setbacks in several states that are hot spots for the projects, as Democratic candidates promising to curb the rapid proliferation of the compute warehouses won governors’ races…
A voter poll conducted on behalf of major TV networks said early on Wednesday that 56 percent of midterms voters considered AI and data centers to be a major or crucial factor in their vote. That ranked them as the least influential among five issues, far behind government corruption, the war in Iran and the cost of living…
It’s unclear whether local and state restrictions will meaningfully slow the frantic building of AI data centers around the United States. Some industry officials say that a significant portion of the roughly 600 large-scale AI data centers either planned or under construction is unlikely to become operational regardless of public reaction.
Three quick thoughts in response:
- With these election results, this does not necessarily mean that data centers cannot or will not be built in some places. Does this mean places and officials open to data centers will build more within their geography? Is this an opportunity for some locations?
- I’m curious to see how conversations about AI and its potential line up with conversations about people not wanting to live near them. What is the point where people say data centers are needed because AI is needed for particular uses and so they have to go somewhere near us? Is there any point that this happens if there are always options where data centers can be located elsewhere?
- When I read about NIMBY responses to all sorts of land uses, I keep coming back to an idea: why not have municipalities or special government zones where these undesirable land uses could be concentrated? Use the Chicago area as an example: if many residents in the city and suburbs do not want data centers near them, is there a way to put a bunch of data centers in one municipality with no residents nearby? Out of sight and hearing, out of mind?
