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Councilor Nichols’ comments during the Nov. 9 city council meeting were misleading. As reported by the TR, the Councilor held up his cell phone during that meeting and claimed that anyone using their cell phone apps were using data centers and implied that therefore we shouldn’t be objecting to local data center construction. Intentionally or not, he is misleading us.
The US already has more than enough data centers to handle our nation’s everyday internet usage. In fact, the US has 10x the number of data centers than any other country so there’s little risk of being “left behind.” Data center expansion is not intended to support our everyday internet use, it is almost exclusively designed to support increased AI usage and surveillance. That is extremely troubling for a number of reasons, both culturally and economically.
Yes, there are a limited amount of useful research purposes for AI, but the goal of introducing AI into more and more of our business and commercial enterprises has the expressed goal of streamlining operations and increasing revenue. To us laypeople, that means cutting jobs. We are already struggling, why should we hand them the tools to make matters worse? And as an artist, I have deep and sincere concerns with generative AI stealing original artwork and flooding our culture with regurgitated slop. And i challenge you to ask any teacher about our children’s ability to think independently and apply logic and problem-solving skills in a world that’s eager to keep them glued to a screen and engaged in heart-felt “conversations ” with AI instead of living a full life in the real world.