At the end it's a facility that costs the locals and benefits non-locals. Even if AI is the truly greatest productivity booster, the benefits are still distributed over all its customers, and the environmental impacts are mostly local.

It's like if someone is building a landfill in your hometown to bury the whole country's waste. Or it's like a factory that creates zero job.

▲

pyuser583 8 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I’m sorry but I’d like specifics - there are too many environmentalists hand-waving.

This is a well established playbook - it was used with nuclear. It’s being used with oil transport.

It’s literally the same script.

▲

xnx 30 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

How is this different than a cornfield? A data center is probably a better neighbor because it doesn't kick up dirt, pesticides, and fertilizer into the air.

	▲	chucksta 4 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Generally people enjoy being around them, looking at them, and eating what they produce. How does HN feel about ai written blogs? Who wants to go stand next to a 30' warehouse?
	▲	pragma_x 21 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Water consumption and localized atmospheric heating have been cited elsewhere as drawbacks. There have been some articles citing noise/vibration pollution (subsonic?) but I'm not completely convinced on that front. Personally, I would add electric grid load to the list. In the worst case, if your local municipality sides with business over the little guy, that means potential brownouts and water shortages for you.

▲

pantsforbirds an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Except datacenters are actually very low environmental impact. As long as they provide their own power, they have MUCH lower impact than most farms would.

▲

yoyohello13 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

> As long as they provide their own power

Key point doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Do all these data center buildouts include providing their own power? Seems like the answer is largely no. These companies expect power infrastructure to be supplied by the government, but also want lower taxes.

▲

raincole 28 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

First of all I didn't say that we should ban datacenters. The point is that they should benefit the locals one way or another. Requiring them to invest in energy and other infra is a good first step.

▲

306bobby 33 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Well the data centers around me certainly don't provide their own power and water, so your point seems moot

▲

jeltz an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Let them eat tokens.

▲

cratermoon an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

But the farms! is the new but her emails!

	▲	nancyminusone 32 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Even unprofitable farms can produce edible food. A datacenter is a machine that uses electricity to make heat and no other physical prouducts. That's a tough justification to make to people who live near one.