Climate News reports that existing grids are a problem in terms of efforts toward decarbonization and an inability to service existing customers given high energy jumps. Overall this nationwide trend of building larger and larger data centers with high energy demands is likely to lead to more use of fossil fuels by 2030 , which ironically is the projected year for national and international goals toward reducing carbonization.
A planned 4.5 million square foot data center taking up 700 acres in a peaceful rural area in Bessemer Alabama outside of Birmingham, called Project Marvel, is slated to be one of the largest in the country. It requires clear cutting more than 100 acres. Project Marvel will soak up more than 10 times the amount of energy used by residents in Birmingham annually and would potentially be one of the largest single consumers of electricity in the state.
FirstEnergy utilities has clusters of developed data centers strategically sited in areas with lower real estate costs as in the case of Nevada. Reports are that these centers will more than double by 2029. The utility company services parts of western and central Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and portions of Maryland and West Virginia, and Ohio. New Jersey alone already has 76 data centers with varied capacities.
A Netherlands-headquartered company focused on building infrastructure for the artificial intelligence (AI) sector said it plans to build a new data center in Vineland, New Jersey. Nebius Group, based in Amsterdam, said the facility would be part of a phased development that would be expandable up to a total capacity of 300 MW.
Northern Virginia's over 400 data centers represent 35% of the world's data centers. It is argued that these centers bring jobs and economic well being. A December report generated for the Virginia General Assembly predicts that power demand in the commonwealth could double in a decade and rise by up to 183% by 2040. It is unknown if any promised technological advancement will mitigate the rising costs and availability of electricity experienced by American citizens particularly given the unpredictability of climate change.
MIT Technology produced a recent report on large data center development in Northwestern Nevada, a dry western state where its capacity to balance out costs in terms of water usage is questionable. An estimated thirteen million square feet is currently under construction. According to James Temple writing for MIT Technology the data centers would represent one of the largest in the world and are located in isolated areas around Greater Reno that avoids scrutiny.
In a hearing that underscored the mounting challenges facing the American power sector, industry leaders warned Congress that the nation’s power infrastructure is approaching a precarious juncture given the unprecedented growth of these centers.
AI has benefits across the board. It can help address climate change as one example. However, there are many factors to consider. These include a limited power grid, unclear transitional plans , trends in climate change, equal access to benefits, development practices that have rely on rapid changes, expansionist ambitions, and the American political environment. These factors, if left unaddressed, curtail long-term planning for a paralleled approach to redesigning the power grid while introducing renewable energy solutions.
The public has been sent a message by powerful interests with an Orwellian twist. These interests have endowed AI with a wicked humanity by depicting AI as if it were an independent entity with no causality eradicating any responsibility for human agency or the need for a social contract.
Colossus is one example. It is an Elon Musk company called xAI. This super computer located in Memphis Tennessee, has been depicted as the world's largest AI super computer . It is used to train AI models. Whatever the spin, the training has a particularly high energy demand which so far has been used to mostly replicated existing models.
Colossus was quickly developed in around 120 days with questionable adherence to environmental regulations in an area that already has air quality problems. For instance, it currently draws about a million gallons of clean water a day from an existing water system. Peak demand estimates are over 10 million gallons a day. Methane release is another serious concern.
Environmental justice is an issue. Colossus is sited in a largely black community in Southwest Memphis. This population has endured " a long history of injustice and has high rates of asthma, cancer, and water contamination. Planned development of Colossus calls for a massive and aggressive approach which will consume more resources and yet there is little public engagement.
Finally, there is the potential magnitude of damage to civil society. Colossus refers to a type of AI or algorithmic system that can exhibit biases, including favoring right-wing content over left-wing content, as seen in platforms like Twitter or from a progressive perspective, where the trend since Trump is moving more to the right.
Research has shown that the creators (human), using the language and knowledge of humans, can amplify his or her political views to the extent of influencing a public discourse without attribution that contributes to political polarization. In an Orwellian sense consumers can find themselves victims of feedback loops. These iterative loops help AI learn however in a less benign sense, they can amplify biases.
The Memphis facility is part of Musk’s quest, particularly supported by Twitter's live data (X), to dominate AI. It provides computing power to AI’s chatbot, Grok. The live data has been promoted as an “anti-woke” version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It has been under fire for loose guardrails and unauthorized modifications, including allowing users to create Nazi Mickey Mouse images. Despite Elon Musk's move to provide open source access to Grok3, so-called "unauthorized" data can manipulate algorithims.
Whatever the means, the bottom line is that Musk's promises of an open, unbiased, impartial, unfiltered, transparent AI, are shadowed by the former South African's accusations of genocide against whites.