Bulletin Board: AI and Data Center news from Minnesota, nationally, and globally

Minnesota Round-up

• Carleton County moratorium discussion (KAXE)
• Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe letter to Gov. Walz, May 20

National Round-up

• Rural Data Center Development and Opposition mapping (Daily Yonder)
• Texas data center power plans and emissions report (Texas Tribune)

Many data centers and accompanying power plants have been proposed for lower-income communities that already experience poor health outcomes, according to the report. Almost 90% of the proposed plants are planned or under construction in counties where the life expectancy is already below the U.S. average of 77 years.

• Recall actions related to elected officials involved with data center approvals (The Guardian)

People across the United States are increasingly pushing for moratoriums on new data centers and trying to oust elected officials approving such projects, and includes rare unity among Republicans and Democrats. The US has more than 4,400 data centers, according to Data Center Map, and one center can consume as much electricity as 2,000 homes, according to a University of Michigan report. They also require water for cooling, and a typical data center uses 300,000 gallons of water each day (equivalent to the demands of about 1,000 households), but large data centers can use an estimated 5m gallons of water each day, equivalent to the daily usage of a town with about 10,000 to 50,000 residents, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.

In just May and June, voters in states including California,  Florida,  Michigan,  Missouri,  Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas launched efforts to recall elected officials over their handling of datacenter proposals.

• Wastewater issues in Cheyenne with Meta data center

AI Round-up

• The Rise of Fake News (Nieman Lab)

Whatever the truth is, it’s a useful reminder that AI has made fakery easy enough that it can come from unexpected directions — even in a niche you know a lot about and which you wouldn’t expect to be worth the effort.