{"id":674829,"date":"2026-05-16T14:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T14:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674829\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T14:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T14:09:07","slug":"pity-the-poor-ai-datacenters-facing-discrimination-arwa-mahdawi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674829\/","title":{"rendered":"Pity the poor AI datacenters facing \u2018discrimination\u2019 | Arwa Mahdawi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in 2016, Marco Guti\u00e9rrez, the Mexican-born founder of Latinos for Trump, issued an ominous warning to the US. \u201cMy culture is a very dominant culture,\u201d he said on MSNBC<\/a>. \u201cIt is imposing and it\u2019s causing problems. If you don\u2019t do something about it, you\u2019re going to have taco trucks on every corner.\u201d<\/p>\n

A decade later, I regret to inform you there is not a taco truck on every corner. But I am here to issue my own ominous warning about the takeover of America: not by immigrant culture but by AI culture. To echo Guti\u00e9rrez: it is imposing and it\u2019s causing problems. And if we don\u2019t do something about it, we\u2019re going to have datacenters on every corner.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not some sort of data-hater, OK? Datacenters \u2013 physical facilities housing storage systems, servers and network devices \u2013 are a critical part of powering the internet; if they disappeared, the modern world would cease to function. The banking system would collapse; you wouldn\u2019t be able to stream Netflix, go on social media, or (most importantly) read the Guardian online.<\/p>\n

But while we obviously need datacenters, the AI boom, and the enormous amounts of computing power it requires, has caused their footprint to massively expand \u2013 and our utility bills to jump. \u201cWhen a data center comes online, retail customers usually help to foot the electric bill: American utilities sought almost thirty billion dollars in retail rate increases in the first half of 2025,\u201d the New Yorker explained last year<\/a>. Meanwhile Bloomberg reported<\/a> on a new study this week that shows \u201cpower prices on the largest electric grid in the US jumped 76% in the first quarter due to rampant demand from data centers.\u201d Things will only get worse. Today datacenters consume 6% of electricity supply<\/a> in the UK and US; by 2030, they could account for more than 14%<\/a> of the US\u2019s total power demand.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just how much they cost that\u2019s problematic. AI datacenters are noisy, emit pollution that could harm community health<\/a> and divert much-needed resources. Last year, for example, residents in Fayetteville, Georgia, noticed low water pressure; eventually they discovered a nearby datacenter had taken 30m gallons of water, initially without paying for it<\/a>. It is no surprise that a new Gallup poll has found<\/a> seven in 10 Americans oppose constructing AI datacenters in their local area. Indeed, most Americans would rather live by a nuclear power plant than a datacenter.<\/p>\n

Of course, the people getting filthy rich from AI will never have to live nextdoor to their moneymaking creations and seem fairly blase about the issues associated with their expansion. Take the OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, for example. \u201cAs AI grows, how big do data centers need to be?\u201d podcaster Theo Von<\/a> asked Altman last year. \u201cIs that a concern of you guys?\u201d<\/p>\n

Not really, judging by his response. Altman waxed lyrical about the scale of the datacenter OpenAI was building before saying that while he wasn\u2019t sure where things were going, he had a lot of guesses. \u201cI do guess a lot of the world gets covered in datacenters over time,\u201d Altman said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t know because maybe we put them in space \u2026 I wish I had, like, more concrete answers for you, but like, we\u2019re stumbling through this.\u201d In true Silicon Valley fashion, while the industry may be \u201cstumbling\u201d, it\u2019s regular people getting hurt.<\/p>\n

But forget the regular people. Won\u2019t anyone think of the poor, oppressed datacenters? As backlash grows, the industry has gone into full-on defensive mode. The venture capitalist Kevin O\u2019Leary, for example, has claimed that people protesting against a vast datacenter in Utah are not actually concerned, they\u2019re just paid agitators<\/a>. \u201cThere are professional protesters that are paid by somebody, I don\u2019t know who,\u201d O\u2019Leary said in a video on X<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

More perniciously, we\u2019re starting to see more discussion around the idea that AI might have legal personhood,<\/a> and datacenters might have certain rights. Earlier this month, MLive<\/a> and 404 Media reported<\/a> on the University of Michigan\u2019s attempts to build a $1.2bn, nuclear weapons research and AI datacenter in Ypsilanti Township. Township officials voted on a year-long moratorium on water and sewer services for the facility, while it conducted environmental impact studies. In response, the university claimed the moratorium discriminated against datacenters. \u201c[T]he proposed moratorium is pretextual and unlawfully discriminatory because it singles out \u2018data centers\u2019 by label rather than by utility impact,\u201d a legal threat said.<\/p>\n

It seems highly likely that we are going to see more discussion about certain \u201crights\u201d being attached to datacenters. After all, looking at the issue more broadly, corporate personhood<\/a> has been a part of US law for over a century and, in recent decades, the rights afforded to corporations have steadily expanded. The supreme court\u2019s 2010 Citizens United<\/a> <\/a>ruling<\/a> found corporations have a right to political speech. Then in 2014<\/a>, the supreme court\u2019s Hobby Lobby ruling found some companies should be allowed a religious exemption from requirements to include contraception<\/a> in employee health plans. This significantly broadened the scope of personhood rights by acknowledging a right to corporate religious expression. In its 2023 303 Creative LLC v Elenis decision<\/a>, the supreme court similarly held that a website design business owned by an evangelical Christian could refuse service to same-sex couples. This once again seemed to put the free speech right of corporations over the rights of LGBTQ+ people not to be discriminated against.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday the Supreme Court once again advanced the personhood rights of some corporations to the detriment of actual human beings,\u201d The Brennan Center for Justice said at the time<\/a> of the Hobby Lobby judgment. \u201c[We are] very concerned about the continued trend of corporations successfully asserting the rights of human beings, while injuring the interests of actual human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

They were right to be concerned. Given the way things are going in the US, corporations seem to have more freedom of speech than university students<\/a>. And it might not be long before datacenters have more rights than women.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma bill on child marriage becomes law<\/p>\n

The bill makes it illegal<\/a> for anyone under 18 to be married, removing current exceptions that allow minors to get married with parental consent or court approval. While one lawmaker voted against it, we were largely spared the creepy speeches we saw when New Hampshire raised the legal age of marriage in 2024. Back then the Republican state representative Jess Edwards said that the bill would make abortion \u201cmuch more desirable<\/a>\u201d for people of a \u201cripe, fertile age\u201d.<\/p>\n

What happened to Aisha and Huda Al-Aqqad?<\/p>\n

Ever since seeing it, I have been haunted by this photo<\/a> of 78-year-old Aisha and 41-year-old Huda Al-Aqqad, a mother and daughter who were abducted from Gaza. A grinning Israeli soldier posted a photo of the blindfolded women in a van while flashing a thumbs-up. An investigation by Sky News identified<\/a> the women and tried to find out what happened. Are they being sexually tortured<\/a> in an Israeli detention center? Are they dead? The Israeli military has no answers and seemingly no interest in investigating<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Supreme court allows abortion pill mifepristone to continue to be available by mail<\/p>\n

While this is good news<\/a>, we shouldn\u2019t be complacent. Expect anti-abortion extremists to continue to try to outlaw<\/a> abortion pills nationwide.<\/p>\n

Single women are buying more houses than single men<\/p>\n

The Guardian has a fascinating piece<\/a> about the men who feel emasculated by this. (Love is Blind enthusiasts will immediately recall the Chris Fusco\/Jessica Barrett drama from season 10, and how hostile Chris was after seeing Jessica\u2019s nice house. Which reinforces my thesis that all you need to know about US culture, you can learn from Love is Blind.)<\/p>\n

Hannah Einbinder is in a new lesbian horror movie, and she\u2019s got her priorities straight<\/p>\n

During her Emmy Awards win<\/a> last year, the Hacks star signed off with the instantly iconic phrase: \u201cGo birds, fuck ICE, free Palestine.\u201d (For confused non-Americans, Einbinder wasn\u2019t bigging up her local street pigeon \u2013 \u201c\u2018birds\u201d refers to Philadelphia\u2019s football team.) In an interview promoting her new queer slasher film, Einbinder, who has called out Hollywood\u2019s silence about Gaza, said she would continue to be vocal about Palestine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In antiquity, women were considered the more sexual sex<\/p>\n

The Guardian has a piece by a historian on why that changed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The week in pawtriarchy<\/p>\n

A Canadian fox was caught red-handed after police officers received a call<\/a> about a \u201ctheft of BBQ goods\u201d. Despite apprehending the fox with a mouth full of hotdogs, police let the animal go. I don\u2019t know if justice was served, but dinner certainly was.<\/p>\n

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section, please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n