Here are helpful resources for better understanding better a more nuanced view of how data centers impact communities.

Water and Resource Impact

  • Impacts of Data Centers on Rural Communities: This article details the impact of data centers on rural communities, including the highly questionable legal behavior of data centers purposely obscuring information about development from community members, and resource impact on local communities.
  • Data Drain: The Land and Water Impacts of the AI Boom - An article by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy explaining just the sheer numbers of local impact of water usage - including how some data centers use more power than a city of 50,000 people.
  • Data Centers and Water Systems - Additional information from the Water Finance Exchange sounding the alarm on data center water usage.

Criticism of the AI Industry