Not to put too fine a point on it, but you do realize you’re using data center resources every time you stream a movie or music, right?
To answer a recent meme, you also use a bottle of water every time you stream a two-hour movie. Do a marathon of eight episodes of your favorite show? Four bottles of water. Put Spotify on in your office for a workday? Two or three bottles of water. I can go on, but you get the idea.
Now, I’m not saying the concerns about data centers are misguided. They aren’t, and the advent of AI will demand the building of a lot more of them.
But here’s the deal. Some are already experimenting with ways to keep water consumption to a minimum. To possibly generate at least some of their own power. To be as light on the local environment as possible.
Some. Not all. Some, though. And they’ve already been successful enough for communities to demand that new data centers use the technologies they’ve worked out.
Here’s the other deal. AI is here to stay. That genie got out of the bottle decades ago. We just didn’t notice until things like ChatGPT came around. But — for example — the first entirely computer-written book hit the market in the 1980s.
So instead of shrieking about AI and data centers as boogeymen, why not advocate for real solutions like regulations and awareness? Why not demand our legislators require the development of methodology to solve the ethical and environmental problems? And why not take a look at your own usage of data resources?
You’re using data center resources right now, just to read this post.
I would definitely support legislation making it illegal to do the shell-company trick we’ve been hearing about lately. That said, companies likely wouldn’t do that as often, if communities were willing to work with them rather than rallying and railing at them.
Folks, sticking our heads in the sand is not going to work. But if we take them out and take a good look, solutions about AI and data centers are possible. We just need to get creative and find them.
After all, it’s still only humans who have true creativity.