Editors at National Review Online support new data centers.
American companies are at present engaged in a building spree that puts all prior building sprees to shame. In scale and in speed, the current investment in artificial intelligence eclipses the construction of the railroads, the development of the interstate highway system, the Apollo program, the electrification of the United States, and the Manhattan Project. Per CBRE, “hyperscaler” tech companies are set to spend nearly $4 trillion on AI infrastructure over the next five years alone. Once complete, this investment will ensure that the United States leads the world in AI, as it has led the world in computing since the end of World War II.
Unless, of course, we screw it up.
And, at this rate, we might. All of a sudden, “data center” has become a dirty word. The environmentalists say that they use too much water. The Luddites point to short-term shifts in electricity prices as a reason to turn back the clock. The NIMBYs say that they hum, vibrate, and cause unspecified psychic damage to animals and humans alike. In consequence, some states have even gone so far as to try to ban data centers completely — without explaining, of course, why the more than 5,000 installations that already exist in this country are exempt from their newfound opprobrium.
To halt the AI project would be a profound mistake — not least because most of the opposition to data centers is born of superstition, short-termism, and, in some quarters, good old-fashioned mendacity.
It is true that AI data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity, and that this can lead to brief spikes in the cost of that electricity. It is not true, however, that this problem tends to last for a long time. …
… It is not true that AI data centers consume enormous amounts of water. This is a pernicious myth that has been spread by left-wing activists. …
