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The impression I get from conversations with non-technical people is that they associate data centers with AI and all the associated controversies and negative externalities that come with that. They do not realize that there are non-AI uses for data centers. I wonder if it’s only a matter of time before people are openly trying to torch data centers.
The impression I get from conversations with non-technical people is that they associate data centers with AI and all the associated controversies and negative externalities that come with that. They do not realize that there are non-AI uses for data centers. I wonder if it’s only a matter of time before people are openly trying to torch data centers.
Not to mention it's being given an 80% tax break, and the air quality is Salt Lake City being the worst in the world on bad days (the plan is for this data center to be natural gas powered).
It's so weird that people are getting worked up about a fake project. Regardless of government activities, there is no industry financing to actually build anything. Kevin O'Leary’s Biggest Scam Yet: https://youtu.be/RWoV0EXxa7c
> ABC4’s crew was also issued a trespassing notice. The class system in the US has never been more on display with the datacenter build outs. A senator who attacks a journalist gets them threatened by the police. Town halls to listen to local "concerns" are charades where they look for any excuse to arrest anyone who voices opposition [1]. [1] https://www.newson6.com/tulsa-oklahoma-news/arrest-made-duri...
[1] https://fortune.com/2026/05/06/ai-data-center-michigan-salin...
Problems with the title: 1. The story is not about one of Utah's 2 US senators, but about one of its state senators. The title should probably say "Utah state senator." 2. There is a missing apostrophe in "reporter's"
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, 99.9999% of all new datacenter projects are explicitly for AI and only for AI. Only AI projects want this much rack space. All the big tech companies combined (except their cloud computing arms) could fit together in just one of these AI datacenters.
Have a source for that?
People in Utah are super upset about this data center project (and no, they aren't bussed-in paid protestors like "Mr. Wonderful" claims). Check Instagram and ksl.com for all the drama, it's very entertaining. Utahns are being asked to save water at every opportunity and then this world-record sized data center gets green lit by the state government with zero explanation as to how that jives with the drought narrativ…
Problems with the title: 1. The story is not about one of Utah's 2 US senators, but about one of its state senators. The title should probably say "Utah state senator." 2. There is a missing apostrophe in "reporter's"
I am absolutely amazed to discover that, despite spending my whole life living in the US, I've never known that states also have their own senates. I'm starting to think that there is no age at which I will stop being embarrassed by the things I do not know.
Problems with the title: 1. The story is not about one of Utah's 2 US senators, but about one of its state senators. The title should probably say "Utah state senator." 2. There is a missing apostrophe in "reporter's"
I am absolutely amazed to discover that, despite spending my whole life living in the US, I've never known that states also have their own senates. I'm starting to think that there is no age at which I will stop being embarrassed by the things I do not know.
I'm with you on that!
An additional fun (?) fact is that Nebraska has only senators, not state representatives, due to having a unicameral legislature unlike all the other states and the federal government. The members of Nebraska's single-house legislature are customarily called "senators," and they're also officially non-partisan, though in the modern era this is just a fig leaf and their partisan political affiliations are clear.
The impression I get from conversations with non-technical people is that they associate data centers with AI and all the associated controversies and negative externalities that come with that. They do not realize that there are non-AI uses for data centers. I wonder if it’s only a matter of time before people are openly trying to torch data centers.
Some of the people are upset that it's AI. Most in Utah are upset about drought conditions and reports of heavy metals in the air thanks to parts of The Great Salt Lake's lakebed being exposed to the air, and now this being rammed down their throats with no explanation of how it doesn't make all that worse. Not to mention it's being given an 80% tax break, and the air quality is Salt Lake City being the worst in the…
The entire State of Utah, *combined* consumes less than half that much energy.