When we talk about the impact of artificial intelligence in the modern day, more often than not the conversation surrounds the technology's impact on creativity and human-made projects. Whether it's layoffs due to AI taking jobs, projects being created with an AI-flair, even key creative companies looking to enforce a bigger role of AI, the list goes. But one area we often overlook is the impact that the mega AI data centres place on the environment and those who live near to them.
Years after becoming famous for bringing the shady dealings of a Californian energy corporation to the fray, where the company was polluting a city's water supply network without repercussion, an effort that led to a film being created and based on her story with Julia Roberts in the lead role, lawyer Erin Brockovich is now looking to shine a similar spotlight on the AI industry.
The famous lawyer has created a crowdsourced map that chronicles community concerns and information about the variety of AI data centres sprouting up across the United States. The key concerns this aims to tackle is to make a bigger emphasis on the high energy usage of these facilities, the immense amount of water they use to cool the servers, the e-waste they produce, the noise levels they kick out, the location risks they create and how it could increase risk of natural disaster, and also the scalability and efficiency concern that sees key community infrastructure and planning outpaced by the demands of data centre facilities.
Speaking about this, Brockovich has shared a statement where she explains: "The RACE to build AI infrastructures is unfolding town by town across America. In some places, data centers are welcomed. In others, they are delayed, contested or abandoned altogether. This MAP captures the real-world footprint of that race — revealing patterns of growth, conflict and uncertainty.
"I am watching as YOU, the communities show up and speak out. In the famous words of Mark Twain ... "The secret of getting ahead is getting started," so let's go!"
You can head over here to view the interactive map that already has information on 33 operational data centres, with details on a planned 52 others under construction, 30 that have been proposed, and 2,716 that have been reported by the community.