AI is no ethereal entity that lives in “the cloud.” It is a machine that lives in an AI Data Center. Not just one data center, but several data centers across our nation. Over 4,000 data centers operate in the USA. Many of them were built before generative AI came on the scene and captured our imagination with its superpower to create text, images, art, video, and sound in response to our instructions. We never questioned the origin of its source material. But that’s another story. My focus here is on the AI Data Center.

AI Data Centers that power your favorite chatbot—OpenAI ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Anthropic Claude—are massive structures. What’s more troubling is that these centers need vast expanses of land, as well as lots of energy, and water to power their AI machines. With lots of money to be made during the generative AI boom, data centers are sprouting up everywhere across the United States. Your community could be their next target.