A Balanced Conversation About AI, Data Centers and the Technology We All Use

 

As communities across the country debate the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and the construction of large data centers, it is important to have an honest and balanced conversation about both the benefits and the costs of these technologies.

 

We know a lot of people personally who are strongly opposed to artificial intelligence and data centers. We respect their concerns. There are legitimate questions about electricity consumption, water use, environmental impacts, land use and the rapid pace at which AI is developing.

 

But there is also something worth considering: If you are strongly opposed to AI and the infrastructure that supports it, yet continue to actively participate in social media and other online platforms, there is a certain contradiction in that position.

 

That isn’t meant as a personal attack. It’s simply a reality of the technology we use every day.

 

Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and other social media platforms don’t exist in some separate technological universe. They depend on enormous amounts of computing power, servers, data storage, networking equipment and data centers. The photos we upload, the videos we watch, the comments we post and the messages we send all require infrastructure somewhere to process, transmit and store that information. Even a search in a search engine uses AI.  

 

And increasingly, that same infrastructure is being used to develop and operate artificial intelligence.

 

In other words, when we participate in the modern internet, we are participating in an ecosystem that includes many of the same technologies and data centers that people criticize when discussing AI.

 

That doesn’t mean someone cannot oppose a particular AI application or object to a particular data center project. Communities absolutely should ask tough questions about energy, water, environmental impacts, infrastructure and whether a proposed project makes sense for the area.

 

But there is a difference between questioning how technology is being developed and saying that we want nothing to do with the technology while continuing to use the services that depend upon it.

 

For those of us who use social media every day, it may be worth acknowledging that we are not completely outside the system we are criticizing. In a sense, our participation makes us part of that system. Every picture, every video, and every post takes physical space in a data center.

 

That doesn’t make someone a bad person, and it doesn’t mean they have to embrace everything about AI. But if we are going to criticize artificial intelligence and the data centers supporting it, we should also be honest about our own dependence on the same technological infrastructure.

 

There is a little bit of hypocrisy in demanding that the technology stop while continuing to consume its benefits every day. Yes, you just read this on one of those devices. Welcome to the contradiction: condemning AI and data centers while continuing to rely on the very technology, networks, platforms, and infrastructure that make them possible.