I am not so opposed to AI Data Centers 🤖

AI and data centers are the latest hype that the popular media is obsessing about. There is a lot of money flowing into the development of artificial intelligence and the processing of data that supports AI. Still color me skeptical – there is a lot of proposed projects that will never get beyond the planning stages – and even more that will be abandoned after partial construction.

That doesn’t mean that we don’t need more upgrades to electrical distribution center, or that warehouses and increased internet connectivity can’t be put to good use. Maybe for the first time, Rural America will get good internet access, as upgrades for data centers is laid.

As they say, you can extrapolate any trends to non-sensible conclusions, all growth eventually is unsustainable. And it’s not like AI isn’t useful for things, beyond the cheap thrills of chat bots, free writing services, and cute memes. Indeed, AI in many ways is a force multiplier – it expands how much a person can do themselves – by automating and pulling together information in ways a single person or institution can not do on their own.

I have my doubts that AI will take over the world. I also have my doubts that AI will dramatically increase electricity use to levels shown in projections. But I do think it can have modest gains in productivity for many industries, and it will take some electricity, though far less then the out year projections will show.