Data centers and AI must be tamed before it is too late

by Ron Prosek, FaCT Ohio Board

We can't get away from hearing seemingly unending reports about data centers and A I and the challenges they are posing to communities all over the country and around the world. The U.S. has thousands of data centers--more than any other country. Ohio alone has some 226 with more planned. Two were proposed in my home county (Lake), but local residents pushed them back--for now, at least. Also, we see A I appearing in more and more aspects of our lives.

FaCT Ohio's most recent Distinguished Speaker, Dr. Noreen Herzfeld, shared with us her concerns about this technology--among which are concerns about how A I is disembodying our humanity and transferring it to machines. The Pope, in his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, has expressed similar concerns. Consider the fact that Ohio students have never regained what was lost during the pandemic. Reading scores remain far below where they should be, and A I doesn't seem to be helping that. In fact, A I and internet technology in general, may be hindering reading improvement.

We can't get away from hearing more and more about data centers and A I and the challenges they are posing to communities all over the country and around the world. The U.S. has thousands of data centers--more than any other country. Ohio alone has some 226 with more planned. Two were proposed in my home county (Lake), but local residents pushed them back--for now, at least. Also, we see A I appearing in more and more aspects of our lives.

FaCT Ohio's most recent Distinguished Speaker, Dr. Noreen Herzfeld, shared with us her concerns about this technology--among which are concerns about how A I is disembodying our humanity and transferring it to machines. The Pope, in his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, has expressed similar concerns. Consider the fact that Ohio students have never regained what was lost during the pandemic. Reading scores remain far below where they should be, and A I doesn't seem to be helping that. In fact, A I and internet technology in general, may be hindering reading improvement.

Look, it is already seriously threatening--our water, our land, and our physical and mental health. Now, according to an article in the New York Times ("This Boom Looks a Lot Like the Housing Bubble," by Jen Harris), A I and data centers may be threatening the stability of our economy. As these enterprises started out, companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon were using their own money. But as construction of data centers ramped up to higher levels, companies had run out of ready cash and so started borrowing -- and borrowing heavily, often from each other. This latter practice, described as circular financing, has raised the overall debt for these enterprises to incredible levels. This is what economists call a bubble.

The danger, of course, is that the bubble might burst at some point. Think of the Panic of 2008 when during the subprime housing crisis Lehman Brothers went under and pulled much of the rest of the financial sector down with them. This sent a shock though the whole economy. Nine million Americans lost their jobs! Harris says that a burst AI-data center bubble might well be even more serious than the 2008 crash.

All this speculation about an A I agent that might wipe out all humanity seems unrealistic to me. I think it is clear that AI and data centers are unsustainable. They will fail. Why? Simply because there isn't enough water or electric power to support them, and there never will be. However, unless we get control of the huge debt the tech bros are running up, we will have a burst bubble and a severe recession or worse.

The time for action is now. If the Dems take control of Congress, as they are expected to do, they must begin investigative hearings on this situation and then take appropriate action to prevent a national economic disaster. No doubt Congress will have a lot on their plate, but they must get control of AI and data centers before it's too late.