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- Hacker News
- The actual public outage is driven by fear of what happens to the economy if all work is automatedby variety8675
- I was actually pretty worried that the anti-datacenter backlash would stunt and important industry (for the US).
But I think the effect will be that the companies building them will "sweeten" the deal for the local towns where they are building -- probably by way of taxes. And while that will be a drag on their development (by adding costs), the scale won't be bad enough to really hurt.
And in that sense, everyone wins. The locales will be happy to have the extra resources. And the ones that don't take the "bribe" -- or whatever you want to call it -- won't get datacenters.
(But I do agree that panic is overblown and counterproductive.)
by timmg - Everybody wins? Come on...by cmoski
- > "sweeten" the deal for the local towns where they are building
Yes. And datacenter companies have to foolish to slow-walk doing this. When you are building a 10 to 50 billion dollar construction project, it may be worth giving the local town 100 million (plus 10k directly to every resident) to do with as they please, and it would certainly grease the wheels.
by 9cb14c1ec0 - "The moral panic over data centres is foolish", says editorial in a news journal that is foremost about making money.
The rest of us pay higher and higher electrical bills because of data centers.
Data centers create jobs during construction but few jobs after.
Strategically, though, the US is cooked if we don't keep ahead of the pack.
Hell of a tradeoff.
by sleight42 - We have been building them for decades without problems at the scale we’re talking about them now.
There’s a few in my area that have huge green space around them as per local government and I’d love to live near them…. You got big open green space, trees, wetlands. One I know of is home to Sandhill cranes every summer.
Just do the thing, right.
by duxup - I think one thing that muddles this in online discussions is that there are many voices saying many things about AI, Data Centers, etc. It's easy believe that everyone involved in obstructing data centers is some sort of NIMBY crank that believes fake news about electricity or water usage. But if you look at reporting from people like Jasmine Sun who visited these towns, the actual activists are a lot more sophisticated than tech forums think.
There's a lot of examples of companies failing to deliver things they promised at this level like the FoxConn complex in Wisconsin. Making city leaders sign NDAs doesn't help this. People are more skeptical of future tax revenue claims and it's hard to sell a direct benefit of the AI itself when you spent two years talking about eliminating all white collar jobs. The trust just isn't there.
Given the classical liberal philosophy of The Economist, this just reads like scolding when their world-view is falling out of favor. Luckily for AI boosters, I think data center builders are adapting to reality.
by nateglims - by goldenarm
- Relevant video from Benn Jordan investigating data center noise that the article glosses over: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP80DEAbuoby nklp
- what about the videos of residents showing decibel meters going off and water pressure dropping?
just an anecdote but what exactly do local residents gain here? a handful of permanent maintenance jobs?
by r_lee - Of course those are real issues that should be addressed. Just like if a factory producing bicycles is running all night and keeping you awake. But it's not something that should be concerning for anyone outside the area. It's not an existential crisis, just a local nuisance.by quantummagic
- Some municipalities have been able to levy taxes on computer hardware and fund their public services.by SnorkelTan
- > a handful of permanent maintenance jobs?
No. Permanent sleep deprivation and probably tinnitus. It's sad, really.
Poorly designed cooling infrastructure is indeed noisy. There are lower noise versions exist, but they are expensive, and I don't think they can be that quieter to make a difference at that scale.
by bayindirh - I think the hatred towards the data centers stems from the anger and frustration that has been caused by the white collar job replacement done by AI.
We have an entire generation of young people that went to college and got a degree hoping that they would be able to get a good job and live a comfortable life. However, that's not the case anymore and the fact that almost all entry level jobs are replaced by AI has created this sentiment among people that somehow AI is evil.
The problem is not that AI is evil, but most of the people would have to learn new skills and adapt because the profession or job they trained at college doesn't exists anymore.
Data Centers have existed way before mainstream AI. Everyone would binge watch the latest season of popular shows of Netflix and won't even bat an eye thinking how much water that has wasted.
- > The problem is not that AI is evil, but most of the people would have to learn new skills and adapt because the profession or job they trained at college doesn't exists anymore.
isn't the problem then capitalism? the promise of AI is to deliver efficiencies, leverage, and consequent surplus. AI does not itself allocate the surplus.
by milkshakes - What you're saying is exactly the question isn't it? I've seen polling on opposition to data centers and "I hate AI" isn't a majority reason. It's more like 15%.
The reasons people give are higher electric bills, water shortages, and environmental damage.
I think that those reasons are spurious but I also think that for some issues facts don't make much difference. People will have opinions about things that are totally at odds with facts.
- I have a lot of left leaning non-tech friends. They are all very much against AI data centers. I've built AI data centers, and I keep trying to educate them, but they just won't listen.
The water is mostly part of a closed system. Sure, you need a lot to build one, but once it's running it's pretty water efficient. The lack of green power is a problem, but as the article points out, you now have a large customer subsidizing the base cost of delivery, since they are only one delivery point, and they are financing new sources of power, which if properly regulated would be green power.
The noise is an issue, I will admit that. As is the fact that a lot of the power is coming from non-green sources. But the government could easily fix these problems with regulations that apply broadly, not just to datacenters.
by jedberg - Maybe that is because you are the one not listening.
You even note the problems, but then wave them away saying that "the government could fix them."
So have the government fix those problematic regulations first, and then the AI centres can re-apply for permission.
by grandinj - What do you think is the biggest blocker to governments successfully regulating these kinds of things?by Teever
- The water can be a closed system.
But that's more expensive to operate.
So most of them don't do it.
Show me actual statistics that a supermajority of new and proposed datacenters either are currently using (for new), or plan to use, with clear financial projections for how (for proposed), closed-loop cooling systems, and I'll consider conceding this point. Until and unless someone can do that, you can point to the option of such systems until you're blue in the face, but it's meaningless.
by danaris - > left leaning ... but they just won't listen
Isn't that just the definition of left or right leaning? People who don't listen.
by TiredOfLife - > But the government could easily fix these problems with regulations that apply broadly, not just to datacenters.
Even if you can get legislators to pass regulation, enforcing it is a constant battle, and odds are they'll just pay a fine and keep on violating the regulations.
It's a much easier fight to keep a DC out of your community to begin with.
by ChiperSoft - Given your experience with data centers, what do you think of this quote from the article?
> In any case, even the noise worry is overstated: many viral videos of supposed AI data centre noise are really Bitcoin mines, not state-of-the-art hyperscaler facilities.
Are there really major differences between a hyperscaler, neocloud, and crypto mining data center in terms of noise pollution or other negative effects?
by cl42 - Keep trying to educate them how? By your own admission data centers:
* use a lot of water to build one
* the power is a problem
* the noise is an issue
* the power is coming from non-green sources
* the government could “easily” fix all this with regulations
- Besides the data center itself, many people in the US are against what the data center is bringing: more AI.
Most regular people have not been sold on the idea that more AI will be good for them or their families or communities personally. Instead all they hear is AI taking away jobs, and AI preventing high schoolers and college kids from learning how to read a book and write an essay. Most people think a world with more AI seems bleaker.
So people wonder why communities don't want this hulking, loud, energy-expensive data center whose main benefit is to hasten the arrival of this world they don't want?
by SamBam - The article dismisses everything without sourcing anything.
US electricity is 40% more expensive since 2022 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU000072610
Some AI datacenters can indeed be heard a mile away https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/28/datacenters-...
Amazon's new Texas AI data center could become the biggest CO2 polluter in the US https://www.techradar.com/pro/amazons-new-texas-ai-data-cent...
by goldenarm - The gas generators can be heard a mile away… protest gas generators?
- FYI - EIA has analysis on the energy increase - https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=65284
Relative to data center growth, the correlation doesn't match - https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/monthly-spending-data-cen...
More analysis here - https://www.wri.org/insights/whats-driving-us-electricity-pr...
But TL;DR - sounds like in the northeast / PJM it's load increases, in North Dakota increased load is causing drops in prices, California it's mostly from wildfire mitigation + insurance, natural gas oscillating across the US is causing price changes as well.
- > just about everything in modern life, from streaming Netflix to running a dishwasher, consumes water at levels that can be portrayed as wasteful by hair-shirt environmentalists.
Ad-hominems in an Economist article. This reads more like an opinion piece than reporting. There are plenty of documented problems with water usage of data centres. Some can use it efficiently but it costs more to do so and many (most?) do not.
We are also in a time when most people would prefer to use that water for drinking, washing, cleaning… basically anything except data centres.
Don’t think many people are going to read this and think, “Gosh, I was a fool!”
by agentultra - > Ad-hominems
The title already gives it away, calling it a “moral panic”. Casting your opponents as some sort of brain-damaged cranks is such a tired trope.
by isolay