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gruez 7 hours ago

That goes for like, most infrastructure? Who would want a dump or nuclear power plant in their backyard?

jkmcf 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Technically people do benefit from having a dump or power plant.

Very few people are affected by having a dump nearby or a nuclear power plant, whereas it seems like the power generators for these AI data centers really belong in an industrial park.

These data centers also don't employ many people, though I've read they are wonderful for city taxes, assuming they haven't gotten too many enticing tax breaks.

gruez 7 hours ago | parent [-]

>Technically people do benefit from having a dump or power plant.

They also benefit from an AI datacenter, at least as evidenced by how many installs the chatgpt app has.

>Very few people are affected by having a dump nearby or a nuclear power plant, whereas it seems like the power generators for these AI data centers really belong in an industrial park.

Something tells me the anti-datacenter activists won't be placated by moving a block or two away from residential zones.

>These data centers also don't employ many people, though I've read they are wonderful for city taxes, assuming they haven't gotten too many enticing tax breaks.

And dumps do?

tzs 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Pretty much nobody, but dumps and nuclear power plants are in the same category as things like airports and sewage treatment plants that provide services that are largely used in the area the service provider is in. You may not like a dump nearby, but hey, your area needs those services and the providers have to be in the area, and at least a dump is better than a sewage treatment plant.

AI data centers are not in that category. Nothing AI is going to do (good or bad) for 99.9% of people requires that the data center that AI is running in is in the same area, or even the same state. It just needs to be somewhere where the internet latency between them and the data center is not too high for whatever they are using the AI for.

ungreased0675 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I’ll take the nuclear power plant, as long as I’m far enough away to not hear anything from it.

zbrozek 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Folks don't want anything built near them ever. Even if it's as benign as housing.