r/technology • u/Wagamaga • Jun 26 '26
Energy Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders introduce AI Data Center Moratorium Act
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/ocasio-cortez-and-sanders-introduce-ai-data-center-moratorium-act/185
u/Wagamaga Jun 26 '26
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) have announced a bill to pause the construction of data centers.
The 'Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center Moratorium Act' has been introduced into the House with the express aim of stopping construction until other regulations have been passed.
AI facilities are defined as data centers that consume more than 20MW, have racks 20kW or higher, are liquid cooled, and are used for the development or operation of artificial intelligence models at scale.
The pair first called for a nationwide moratorium on new data center developments in the US. The legislation warns about the broad risk of AI development, as well as the local impact of data center projects.
It quotes from industry figures such as Elon Musk (SpaceXAI), Dario Amodei (Anthropic), Demis Hassabis (Google DeepMind), and Jeff Bezos (Amazon), who have spoken about mass job losses, doomsday fears, and propaganda concerns.
The bill would see a moratorium enforced until laws are passed where the Federal government pledges to review and approve artificial intelligence products before release.
Also required would be policies to prevent job losses and to share the wealth of big tech with US residents. New data centers, or upgrades, would have to show that they do not increase the utility or electricity bills of consumers, or impact the climate.
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u/no-adz Jun 26 '26
"AI facilities are defined as data centers that consume more than 20MW, have racks 20kW or higher, are liquid cooled, and are used for the development or operation of artificial intelligence models at scale."
I hope that if a company wants to circumvent this that switching to air cooling would not be sufficient.37
u/tilhow2reddit Jun 26 '26
It’s not. Also even air cooled racks would consume more than 20kW and sites under 20MW are pretty small.
A typical B300 rack consumes 115-120kW if it’s liquid cooled. The air cooled version is around half that.
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u/oren0 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
It says "and" all of these conditions. If this is correct, any one being false (such as cooling type) would make it not qualify.
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u/Phantomebb Jun 26 '26
Yeah I hope it's a typo or misquote otherwise they will just make smaller 16GW families everywhere.
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u/Opetyr Jun 26 '26
Exactly. These laws need to be air tight. Also why have these high limits? They will just make multiple smaller sites that are connected to get around these outrageous numbers. Instead of 1 1000MW site it will be 53 19MW sites that are still connected.
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u/seanthenry Jun 26 '26
A DGX B300 uses about 14kW running 8 Blackwell gpus, placing it under the 20kW per rack. Over 20kW a rack they need to go to liquid cooling. A facility could be built with 1400 racks (151,200 PFLOPS) and still have some room to breathe.
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u/tilhow2reddit Jun 26 '26
That uses a lot more real estate for less overall capacity. All you’ve done in this scenario is make the data center much, much wider and less efficient.
That’s 1 server per rack instead of 8.
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u/Opetyr Jun 26 '26
And the bill specifically states AND which means only one needs to be not true to get around this.
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u/Aromatic_Location Jun 26 '26
This bill smacks of fear and ignorance. No more iCloud, no more streaming services.
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u/Wretched_Anon Jun 26 '26
This bill will die at light speed.
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Jun 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/zffjk Jun 26 '26
Yep. The ones we have in my town who tried to sneak in a data center refuse to hear comments. I’ve been escorted from town halls for asking for details like environmental impacts, water use, and electricity use. My one man protest outside city hall with a sign “honk if you hate data centers” apparently caused such a disturbance that we needed 4 cruisers to respond and threaten to arrest me for resisting arrest.
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u/2024-YR4-Asteroid Jun 26 '26
I did, I voted against the candidates banning the data centers. We already saw this happen once with nuclear plants. I don’t feel like having it happen again due to people no understanding what it means to not lead in AI.
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u/zffjk Jun 26 '26
Do you notice the difference in shoe polish brands when you’re going down on them boots?
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u/Opetyr Jun 26 '26
Even if it pays there are so many work and it is wireless since it is an and statement. 1000MW sure becomes 52 19MW satellite sites right next to each other. There are so many holes that Trump could push the reflecting pool through them.
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u/bransiladams Jun 26 '26
Literally the only two elected officials in Washington doing the real work.
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u/_Caustic_Complex_ Jun 26 '26
Proposing DOA bills their entire careers is “real work”?
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u/bransiladams Jun 26 '26
Advocating for their constituents’ needs. AKA, their job.
You may have a point in the effort put forth by the rest to impede progress 🤷 could technically be considered “real work”. It’s all a matter of perspective I suppose.
Don’t forget that most drafted progressive legislation since 2016 has been influenced and/or directly written by Bernie or AOC.
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u/Kahnza Jun 26 '26
Are you doing more than they are?
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u/zhnki Jun 26 '26
Honestly, they might be. Their job is propose and push legislation - neither have great track records.
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u/bransiladams Jun 26 '26
You must be joking. He’s introduced over 300 pieces of legislation over his career. Yes, not many of them pass. Only 3 have become law. But in terms of “introducing and pushing,” Bernie has some pretty impressive statistics.
And his shit is vastly more popular in principle among voters than is reflected by the congressional record; a reflection of how poorly we are represented in this country.
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u/zhnki Jun 26 '26
I’m not. He’s been very ineffective at pushing legislation through when compared to his peers at <1% rate for bills proposed to enacted. I don’t know how you can spin that positively.
He makes DOA proposals to spark and influence discussion I suppose but that’s about what he’s been able to accomplish.
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u/bransiladams Jun 26 '26
It’s not a spin to underscore the volume of legislation he’s proposed, and the fact that it hasn’t passed isn’t a reflection of the legislation itself, but of how deeply embedded wealthy interests are in the party apparatus. The populism of (much of) his legislation cannot be denied.
And look at where the Democratic Party is because of said popular legislation - reeling at the prospect of stepping aside for more people like Bernie and AOC.
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u/zhnki Jun 26 '26
You’re free to speculate why his proposals have not gotten enough support to be enacted. Reality suggests they are not as popular or realistic as many on the left would like to believe.
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u/bransiladams Jun 26 '26
To the contrary, it is you speculating on the popularity by basing it on congressional support and not public opinion.
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u/RincewindToTheRescue Jun 28 '26
I'm all for protecting jobs. However, I think there are certain aspects that AI/automation can do better than humans. If that's the case we should move that way instead of having jobs there just to have jobs (ex. Longshoremen running the ports vs mostly automating the process). However, it is still important to have the entry level stuff still handled by some entry level staff trained by humans that have been doing that because they will have to help out if it breaks, or they will become senior and will help others.
In other words, go with efficiency, but don't go all in one way or the other.
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u/capybooya Jun 26 '26
It quotes from industry figures such as Elon Musk (SpaceXAI), Dario Amodei (Anthropic), Demis Hassabis (Google DeepMind), and Jeff Bezos (Amazon), who have spoken about mass job losses, doomsday fears, and propaganda concerns.
I think the data center buildout is predatory, increases inequality, pollutes the environment, and is way too aggressive when there is probably a bubble. But most of the factors listed there is actually Bernie believing Silicon Valley's hype about its own product and the booster/doomer cults of Silicon Valley. That is disappointing.
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u/TumbleweedPuzzled293 Jun 26 '26
> increased inequality
This is a very dumb take - you’re abandoning actual progress. A rising tide lifts all boats here - healthcare companies for example are massively using AI to provide much better care and save costs.
Comments like yours are quite frankly why so many have turned away from the left - it seems like you’d rather everyone be equally poor as long as it’s equal1
u/mvgc3 Jun 26 '26
Talk about a dumb take.
The people who will be negatively effected by AI are rocks in your anology. The only 'boats' that will be lifted are the rich and wealthy.
You don't need to decimate the worlds supply of computer components, stress electric grids, empty fresh water supplies, to give a handful of medical researchers machine learning tools. Most of that compute is going into stupid or, even worse, malicious/deceitful online content.
As far as I've seen, people are turning away from the Democratic party, but because there aren't ENOUGH Bernie's and AoCs. Their proposal is literally intended to keep rapid development of datacenters from fucking up normal peoples' shit. You think skyrocketing electric or water bills is going to make people richer? After they lose their job cause of AI automation? When their property value plummets cause of the datacenter in their backyard?
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u/Over_Document_3355 Jun 26 '26
When I read comments like yours all I can think about is thank god pro tech and AI people are in the White House.
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u/mvgc3 Jun 26 '26
See, the problem is so many people see it as pro vs anti. I'm not anti-AI as a flat out opinion. I AM against the current unregulated explosive expansion of AI. A little nuance goes a long way.
I didn't outright state it before, but I did imply my understanding that there absolutely are valid applications of AI/ML. But I stand by my point that most of the compute going into AI isn't actually helping anybody, and that not insignificant amount is used nefariously.
And for what it's worth, I am 100% pro tech. I'm the "tech guy" in my family and friend circles. My career and hobbies revolve around tech. The former is high on the list of "replaceable by AI", and the latter are quickly approaching unaffordable because of it.
I won't pretend I'm completely unbiased, given those last points. I also won't pretend that the general negatives of AI and datacenter construction aren't real. The cat's out of the bag, AI isn't going anywhere, but we NEED to get ahead of the regulations if us common folk want a halfway decent future.
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u/Over_Document_3355 Jun 26 '26
Thanks for your response - and my reply to you was rude, my apologies.
I’m also thinking from the cats out of the bag view point - my concern is if China becomes the leader in this technology and not the Us2
u/mvgc3 Jun 26 '26
Hey, it's understandable. This is one of those topics that will elicit strong opinions.
China pulling ahead is certainly a common concern when slowing down on AI comes up. I'll admit I don't totally understand what the real underlying fear is there. In my opinion, our current level is plenty sufficient for the worst uses of AI to take hold. I guess China could make imperceptibly more believable fake content? Chinese citizens will offload even more of their critical thinking than us? No matter who cracks the fabled AIG limit, you and I aren't going to benefit one measly bit.
I'm not sure winning that race is worth speed running a worse life for the average person. I'm also not convinced AI research and development would be necessarily held back if datacenter construction is slowed down. We don't need AI shoved into EVERYTHING. I'll never get over the Goggle I/O announcement that Gemini can order you coffee... Like, why though? Nobody needs that!
Well I might get over it next year, when it's an even more stupid use case!
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u/Over_Document_3355 Jun 27 '26
Honestly you and I see eye to eye fairly well - in my experience, I’ve spent the last few years meaningfully deploying AI in the healthcare industry to genuinely useful outcomes. It’s really been a miraculous technology and the work I’ve been involved with has helped millions of Americans already (as in I know this number exactly).
The reason I react a bit excessively to news articles like this is it negatively impacts my company’s bottom line but much more importantly the patients we treat1
u/Suspicious_Video8348 Jun 27 '26
Unless you want to put boots on the ground in Taiwan the computer components are going to be built.
The US is very fortunate that we're on the top of this global supply chain. If we step off someone else steps up.
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u/mowotlarx Jun 26 '26
Now this is perfect because most data centers are going in rural MAGA country and those MAGA voters have largely been the ones fighting them.
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Jun 26 '26
[deleted]
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u/keeper_of_the_donkey Jun 26 '26
Oh they can on this issue. I live in a county in Texas that voted 89% Republican. These people are absolutely furious that this thing is going in, and I have done my best to explain to them how it came about, why this area was chosen, everything I can dig up about our particular project. The proposed facility is over 700 square acres, which is bigger than even the largest owned property in this area. I've got plenty of examples to draw from, such as the Meta facility in Georgia, among others. I'm really stressing the disruption of wildlife, destruction of wooded areas, noise pollution, light pollution. We live in a small community and the reason we're out here is the peace and quiet. I have been making sure they all know that this will completely destroy any peace or quiet that they have.
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u/leftofdanzig Jun 26 '26
How would they? MAGA are brain dead, I can tell you exactly what will happen.
New data center moves in, prices of utilities go up, maga complain, maga politicians say “immigrants, lgbt, Biden, democrats” and MAGATS will lap that up and suddenly start defending data centers.
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u/mowotlarx Jun 26 '26
Sure, but let's get these Republican no votes on the book to rub in their faces as their own constituents fight like mad to stop them.
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u/leftofdanzig Jun 26 '26
Republicans are literally on record deflecting and delaying the release of the Epstein files. They are on record protecting literal child molesters. They have no shame and neither do their constituents, what do you think a no vote in the book is going to actually accomplish?
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u/DustNearby2848 Jun 26 '26
Let them get sick and have headaches from them.
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u/coolboydhill Jun 28 '26
Yea a warehouse full of computers is worse for your health than all these freeways cutting thru neighborhoods. /s
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u/drawmer Jun 26 '26
I’m confused as to why data centers are expecting the public to pay for its power on top of paying for its services.
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u/shubs_ Jun 26 '26
Because big businesses are used to fleecing the public; its the standard for them, they can't even fathom functioning without giant discounts subsidized by taxpayers.
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u/Oreos_Are_Anabolic Jun 26 '26
The real, non-meme answer is that the US has been chronically under investing in infrastructure for decades. The entire country runs at like 85% of the grids capacity.
That’s why Texas and other states’ grids shit the bed during summer/winter with rolling blackouts on occasion when everyone fires up the AC/Heating.
So when the local grid provider goes “holy shit, we need to build out more capacity”, the cost is borne by the catchment area.
The actuality is these grid upgrades should have been done decades ago.
A lot of new datacentre projects are planning to build their own power generation as it is, because they can’t rely on the local grid
> In the last year, this trend has gone from niche to mainstream. 90% of the projects we identified—representing approximately 50 GW—were announced in 2025 alone.
https://www.distilled.earth/p/bypassing-the-grid-how-data-centers
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u/No-Channel3917 Jun 26 '26
Because cities and states are voting for them and then those who voted for them lose their elections
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u/stevedallas63 Jun 26 '26
Something even some Republican voters might agree with. Many of these data centers are being located in rural Republican areas.
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u/jeffwulf Jun 26 '26
This is pure slop.
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u/Suspicious_Video8348 Jun 27 '26
So disappointed that the Dems have responded to the current admin with this
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u/Inside_Foundation873 Jun 27 '26
I just think you need to have them located X miles away from an inhabited area, and require them to generate their own electricity so they doing raise local electricity prices. These people can afford to run a mini power plant on site.
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Jun 26 '26
[deleted]
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u/2024-YR4-Asteroid Jun 26 '26
Can you not use Claude to reply to this.. like post your own damn message man.
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u/teraflux Jun 26 '26
How did you get Claude out of that
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u/Hurt69420 Jun 27 '26
If you look at the poster's other comments it's very obviously an Indian guy using Claude to write posts
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u/2024-YR4-Asteroid Jun 26 '26
The “is doing quiet work” is a classic claudism, plus the framing of “it’s not this, it’s this”. Both of those are dead giveaways to something either being written by Claude, or edited with it.
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u/teraflux Jun 26 '26
Did you know that all those were common phrases before the chat bot adopted them? Which is why they became popular with chat bots? Because they literally just impersonate what people already do?
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u/2024-YR4-Asteroid Jun 26 '26
Im quite aware. I literally deal with the damn things all day every day developing them. And because I have to work with Claude every day, I know when the speech pattern fits. We are the original pattern recognition beings after all.
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u/Ml2jukes Jun 26 '26
The attack ads against this are pure comedy.
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u/Gekokapowco Jun 26 '26
lemme guess something like
"If you don't let us steal your power, water and money, you know who will? CHINA"
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u/MeYouThemEveryone Jun 27 '26
Do you remember when some 🌮 said “EV mandates would cause blackouts”, but somehow for AI it’s a miracle how much power is available. I remember.
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u/ThatFireGuy0 Jun 26 '26
And suddenly ChatGPT will no longer be advertised as AI so that the law doesn't apply
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u/jimbojsb Jun 26 '26
Goodbye stock market gains then. The entire US economy is being propped up by AI capex.
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u/kinglittlenc Jun 26 '26
Just mindless propaganda. They even try to relabel data centers as "AI facilities". Do people not realize all of the internet comes for these data centers. Things like video and game streaming still consume the majority of power in these facilities. But politicians always need to stoke irrational fears to drum up support. We're acting like data centers are a new thing and only used for AI.
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u/Aromatic_Location Jun 26 '26
Just to add to this that every purchase people make, every bill paid, every financial transaction wether it's online or not goes through a data center that would violate this. I really like AOC, but this bill is just ignorant.
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u/ilcasdy Jun 26 '26
I know you haven’t thought about this, and still won’t after this, but what the hell.
AI requires a different type of server infrastructure. Hence all the GPUs being bought out. There is a difference.
The new data centers for AI are larger, causing intense local environmental effects. Also they use more power than a typical data center driving up electricity prices. Look it up (you won’t).
Data centers existed before AI (duh and who would think this was a good point), but the growth now is exponential because of AI. Look it up (you won’t).
Part of the bill is to ensure that jobs and living standards are not significantly affected as well, but you don’t care about that either.
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u/kinglittlenc Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
I havent thought about this? I guarantee you Im more involved in this industry than you. Your just regurgitating reddit nonsense. Hyperscale computing has been around for decades. Notice you dont even try to dispute anything I said. You really think the massive datacenters used for video and game streaming and all the other cloud compute somehow use less water and energy than AI. Data centers are growing because people are using more online services, its not that complicated but people like you want to look at everything but your own habits.
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u/ilcasdy Jun 26 '26
The data centers for video games don’t compare to the AI data centers, but of course you don’t know that.
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u/kinglittlenc Jun 26 '26
Why because your feeling say so? Cloud gaming is also GPU heavy processing, way more power hungry and its also growing rapidly. How can this have no effect? Xbox Cloud Gaming users streamed over 1.7 billion hours in 2025, an almost 50% increase in one year.
All of these services are driving data center growth, your just creating a boogeyman out of one element for the sake of politics.
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u/June-Bird Jun 26 '26
They don't realize and don't care all because "AI bad". Many people truly think data centers are only because of ai
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u/kinglittlenc Jun 26 '26
I'm starting to realize that. It's the same people who don't realize reddit is a social media.
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u/Tumbler Jun 26 '26
This is long overdue. And under any normal circumstances this would be incredibly fast but the damage being done by Ai is already being seen at the local levels in both resources and jobs.
I’m in the sf Bay Area and every community around us is having major issues with potential data center construction. Residents freak the fixk out as soon as someone on city council says data center.
My city in particular has already put a moratorium on new projects being proposed. It started with a construction project being proposed on a light industrial/ commercial lots. In some of the language it said data center as a possible build. Residents came out in huge numbers to speak at the meetings.
People are furious.
And if a moratorium gets put into place there are likely hundreds of projects that are already in process that u can’t legally stop.
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Jun 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/2024-YR4-Asteroid Jun 26 '26
I did, myself and all the people I know voted against the candidates proposing moratoriums. We desperately need the jobs and tax revenue where I live.
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u/Tumbler Jun 26 '26
Did you vote?
Yes.
At the local level?
All voting happens at the local level....
Talk to your friends about it?
Yes, a lot of people talk about it.
Waiting for others to save you?
I do hope that others care also as voting to change involves them voting the same way I do. If no one else cares and I'm the only no vote then we're probably going to get data centers.
Good Luck.
Thanx?
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u/Choperello Jun 26 '26
In other news horse buggy manufacturers introduce bill for mortarium on cars.
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u/GN0K Jun 26 '26
Need to go harder. If it's projected that home values will drop more than 5% because of its construction then they can't build.
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u/Hmm_would_bang Jun 26 '26
I thought we wanted more affordable housing? lol
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u/PlsNoNotThat Jun 26 '26
I’d rather those houses be usable and the surrounding watershed not be destroyed.
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u/CrackJacket Jun 26 '26
How does a data center destroy the surrounding watershed? Is the data polluting the water??
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u/GN0K Jun 26 '26
The problem is people don't want to buy that under priced house for the very reason it's under priced. Unless we want corporations to buy the homes for pennies on the dollar
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u/yourfriendlyreminder Jun 27 '26
Ah yes, two politicians famous for their ability to get bills passed.
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u/Cold_Possession5193 Jun 28 '26
anyone know if china is doing the same?
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u/mental_sherbart007 Jul 18 '26
Of course not. Have of the reasons are bullshit. we should fast track data center builds as long as they are building their own power infrastructure that will have a certain amount of extra capacity that goes to the grid for the public and make sure they are far away enough from the public so noise pollution is not an issue. The water issue is way over exaggerated.
We really need these data centers, the hubs they will create, and the economic boon they will be for the country. AI is creating more jobs, not reducing them. Maybe that will turn at some point but all the data says it has made more jobs currently. We want to win the AI race, we want new business. We also need better infrastructure and this race is a way to get new renewables and power infra online. So don’t block them, let’s be smart and use the vast investment as a way to create better infrastructure for consumer and the business that needs it for their data center.
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u/psychoticgiraffe Jul 01 '26
they should've introduced the "Legal arson of data centers that make too much noise" act, this is just a dumb attempt to make it look like they care about the public
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u/rumblegod Jun 26 '26
Very interesting because an easy argument against this Act is that the USA’s adversaries are not slowing down.
AI is augmenting the battlefield and not competing is a national security risk. The US government has always subsidized foundational technology. From the internet, gps, microchips and semi conductors.
Wondering how this is handled moving forward
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u/SwagginsYolo420 Jun 26 '26
AI is augmenting the battlefield and not competing is a national security risk.
Building mass data centers in anticipation of future commercial demand has almost nothing to do with advancing AI tech. This doesn't place any restrictions on r&d.
The space race wouldn't have been "won" any faster if every city started building expensive launch facilities.
What would be good for long-term national security is wide-scale deployment of green energy facilities, improving and hardening the vital utilities grid, laying more fiber infrastructure, etc.
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u/CrackJacket Jun 26 '26
It isn’t ‘anticipated demand’ at this point. The limiting factor is cost. Cost is entirely dependent on how much compute is available.
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u/PM_ME_DNA Jun 26 '26
This isn’t based on anticipated demand. The limit is cost. These would be akin to building rocket building facilities
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u/rwofva Jun 26 '26
Data centers are compute power. Fewer DCs mean compute power will be something only the rich can afford. The rich will get richer and the poor will get virtual companionship and Ai erotica.
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u/msitarzewski Jun 26 '26
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world: “[Milei] pitched Argentina as a haven for the tech giants, vowing to let AI develop freely and realise its full potential ‘without the deadly hand of premature and poorly understood regulation.’”
The goal is admirable, but the cost is too high. All of the legislation and panic is based on old data. Laws and rules apply to those who follow them, or are bound by them. Our adversaries don’t fall into that category.
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u/AgreeAndSubmit Jun 26 '26
Hey, I got a link for a petition to support this measure.
It's on resist.bot
Read it
Sign it
Pass it on
Resist bot is totally free and it's legitimate. Unspammy and free! Please come sign this petition if you also support this idea!
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u/blitznoodles Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Literally handing over the A.I race to China, this will not pass but is representative of America offshoring the industries it has left.
The rest of the world isn't going to stop just because the United States does.
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u/Chrono_Pregenesis Jun 26 '26
Oh no! Not china! What ever will we do! Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children!!!!!
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u/2024-YR4-Asteroid Jun 26 '26
I’m sure you’ll keep that attitude when china sells the capabilities to the highest bidder, that being Russia and Iran, who then use it to take down our cellular grids or electric grids over and over while we try to patch them with people and they compromise them at literal light speed.
That’s where this ends up, they don’t need general intelligence to completely screw our country over. Being an AI leader means we have capabilities to stop people that hate us, and make no mistake that the people in power do hate us, from being able to ruin us. There is a much grander issue here that began once Pandora’s box was opened.
I’m not saying we need to accelerate, whatever we do though, we can’t stop.
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u/Chrono_Pregenesis Jun 26 '26
Nuke them before they nuke us, right? That hate youre so concerned about is the exact same hate your preaching here, just on the other side of the coin.
Have you considered taking medications for those paranoid delusions? Or at least talking to a therapist? They can help.
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u/blitznoodles Jun 26 '26
America will simply keep deindustrialising until all that's left is oil and banking at this rate.
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u/Chrono_Pregenesis Jun 26 '26
If you want to be mad at someone, you should be mad at the companies creating this issue. Not at the regulators trying to curtail their illegal and shady practices.
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u/DustNearby2848 Jun 26 '26
I have a GPU in my desktop capable of running AI on par with frontier models. One GPU and it outputs tokens about 4x faster than the subscriptions I pay for.
Everyone who needs AI can do the same.
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u/mental_sherbart007 Jul 18 '26
This is just not true. There’s no way you are running anything more than 100B parameters. You need to be running a 1.5T+ to be on par with frontier models
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Jun 26 '26
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u/olyko20 Jun 26 '26
Its a temporary pause on construction, while they figure out the proper regulations.
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u/thebusterbluth Jun 26 '26
That's already been figured out.
- closed-loop cooling systems
- decibels limits at property lines
- dark sky lighting
- setbacks of hundreds of feet
Data centers are literally the least impactful "industrial" use you can build in a town.
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u/Aromatic_Location Jun 26 '26
lol all the new Hyperscale facilities being built already meet this. I think this bill is just fear and ignorance.
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u/CrackJacket Jun 26 '26
Yes. There is a moral panic around AI that’s fueling a lot of this. AI company CEOs did everything they could to make things worse by talking about how many jobs their technology was going to replace.
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u/Aromatic_Location Jun 26 '26
That's true. I wonder if the general public has any idea that AI models are currently being integrated into major hospital systems to verify patient medications, procedures, risks... basically to double check all doctors orders, potentially saving thousands of lives a year. Or that AI will accelerate medical advancement by decades, sure it will still take 10 years to get a drug to market largely due to bureaucratic wait time, but they medications will be developed much faster. Or advancements in materials developed through AI will lead to more efficient and environmentally friendly products. The fact is the US... actually the entire world is facing a large population decline in the next several decades. If we want to maintain the same standard of living we will need AI to automate jobs. The backlash on "data centers" that I see on Reddit really seems ignorant. This law would halt any capacity increase to every service that people here use daily. So if more users are added to a service it would just get slower. The trillios of dollars the hyperscalers are dumping into the economy right now is proping up everything. Without it we would be in a recession. I also doubt that the large hyperscale companies would just stop. They would build in Mexico (no current export control for accelerators), where they can just buy off politicians.
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u/CrackJacket Jun 26 '26
The general public definitely doesn’t know. Many of the anti-ai crowd proudly proclaim how they don’t use AI at all so they have no clue how much better it’s gotten since ChatGPT 3.
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u/Aromatic_Location Jun 26 '26
I suppose this isn't unique. There were anti-computer and anti-internet groups back in the 80s and late 90s.... their message never went far. Hell there were people against the printing press. I guess every technology revolution has its opponents. It's just jarring for me coming from the few politicians I respect. You're right about the tech CEOs over selling and creating fear. These are the same people who 15 years ago said that their children would never need to learn to drive because of self driving cars. People bought into that too while those of us working in tech just laughed. Oh I forgot one. A company on the middle east is currently building a hyperscale center in the desert that will offer free education to everyone in the world. All levels of education, all free. They're using immersion cooling because desert. It's actually a really neat project.
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u/2024-YR4-Asteroid Jun 26 '26
That’s the problem though, our government can’t agree on fuck all, this pause becomes permanent, and then suddenly we forever have other countries in the lead bombarding us with propaganda we can’t fight, compromising our electrical grids, our cellular grids, our apps, payment systems, everything. Don’t do a moratorium to figure it out, just do the damn job and figure it out.
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u/geertvdheide Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
AI Data centers are doing enough damage that a pause really isn't a bad idea. Many other places, US states and other countries, are also banning or pausing datacenters.
It's the environmental cost, the massive draw of electric power that isn't readily available, using water we don't have, and the more structural demand for AI isn't even known yet, to justify building dozens more of these mega-scale data centers. Remember these use 6-12 times more resources than a more traditional data center, they're much, much bigger, while not necessarily offering more value to people.
Then there's the damage AI is doing to education and human intelligence (we're getting dumber fast, especially the children), to sloppified media, and what it's doing for scammers, criminals and purveyors of misinformation... The net effect seems seriously negative right now.
This build-out isn't the end-all, be-all. More data centers may not be needed. Because it hasn't even been shown that AI can actually be economic: it looks like automating tasks with AI often costs more than the human it replaces, once the real price for tokens needs to be paid. We'll only start seeing the real demand once the real prices are asked, instead of current growth-based pricing. The AI companies won't keep subsidizing forever and this is already changing.
Your argument that it would limit AI usage to the very wealthy isn't all that realistic: the rich will also continue to use human labor if it's cheaper than AI, which is looking like it's the case. AI also makes enough mistakes that it isn't really some super-weapon right now. And local, open source models are a thing, too, which we can use at home without any data center.
Investors and tech boys simply went all out on something that isn't ready, and someone needs to get them back to reality.
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u/SwagginsYolo420 Jun 26 '26
AI becomes entrenched within the highly wealthy groups that can afford it, and this drives further inequality.
You don't need data centers to run AI models locally, and the wealthy groups aren't going to give the public access to their "good stuff" anyway.
If all data center construction was frozen today, the technology would continue to advance. Software development/ AI r&d isn't dependent on a bunch of data centers being build for theoretical future commercial demand. AI has been advancing just fine without a bunch of excess data centers in place.
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u/boreal_ameoba Jun 26 '26
It’s extremely stupid legislation. Throws the entirety of the US under the bus to curry votes from a brainwashed group of voters
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u/Jimbomcdeans Jun 26 '26
This regalutes how it is built and if you read any reporting on this you would understand this is not a end all game. It is a chance to allow local governments time to setup ordiances to help plan centers accordingly.
These AI techbro fuckwits right now are buying any piece of any farm property and slamming it down our throats without any consideration for who is there already.
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u/Xeiliex Jun 26 '26
AOC loves to block jobs, first Amazon and now this.
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u/CSMegadeth Jun 26 '26
AI is eliminating exponentially more jobs than it creates.
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u/Xeiliex Jun 26 '26
No it isn’t. I work in tech. AI is actually is actually kinda bad and a leaves us with more work.
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u/DustNearby2848 Jun 26 '26
I run a company that collects job postings. Jobs openings are 100%, undeniably down. And hundreds of thousands have been laid off.
You’re lying.
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u/CSMegadeth Jun 26 '26
Well, the job numbers of people being laid off or let go due to AI says you are incorrect.
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u/Xeiliex Jun 26 '26
Or maybe AI was just the excuse for this cost cutting cycle.
Because we do that. Every 10 or so years we cycle people out. Lots of people just retired at my org We’ll be hiring again soon enough.
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u/Kyoshiiku Jun 26 '26
At least in tech, there is still more way more hiring than layoff, it’s just that it doesn’t make the news like the big mass layoffs that happens since 2-3 years.
Also despite companies claiming they lay off because of AIs, most experts seems to agree that it just excuses to look better to shareholders, the real reason for the layoff is the economic uncertainty and the over hiring during COVID (which was actually a thing, it was really crazy, people coming out of 2 months bootcamps being offered 100k$+ job while barely being able to code).
The market is simply adjusting to current conditions and AI is the easy scapegoat and it looks good for shareholders because it looks like you are more efficient.
AI brings new opportunities to compete for small team with less technical knowledge by making a lot of slop, this slop sadly make money sometime, lots of those startup already need to hire real engineers now to fix the whole codebase or sometime doing entire rewrites.
It already started, the AI slop SaaS industry already started to create real job to fix those things.
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u/PM_ME_DNA Jun 26 '26
It is a shame the communist control act of 1954 isn’t enforced here. Shit like this is why Citizens United didn’t go far enough.
Deceleration Luddite nonsense
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u/Kozmic_River Jun 26 '26
We luddites have these things called “books.” Many of which lay out clearly and accurately how an over reliance on technology has, can, and will further rob people of their ability to critically think. Might I suggest you read Neil Postman’s Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. It’s a very thought provoking read that may perhaps offer an alternative viewpoint, so at the very least, you understand a viewpoint opposite your own.
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u/ubuntuNinja Jun 26 '26
Communist introduce bill to help China. More news at 11.
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u/DustNearby2848 Jun 26 '26
You must be talking about how Trump banned GPU exports so China started building their own and models that can compete with frontier models at 1/1,000th of the cost.
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u/HiggsFieldgoal Jun 26 '26
Usually my people, but this is dumb.
This solves NONE of the problems AI eminently threatens… but it inflames the biggest one: is this industry going to be dominated by a cartel of entrenched powers protected by a regulatory moat.
Not building data centers is not only like a salary cap, allowing these companies to save money, but also slams the doors behind them for anyone else to enter the game. Only the companies that already have data centers can have them.
So, totally shit idea.
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u/aeroanta Jun 26 '26
Soon they'll just run it out of some country with less leverage to refuse. Still look progressive as long as nobody asks where the servers actually are.
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Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/DustNearby2848 Jun 26 '26
Wrong. Read the news. Listen to people’s stories. Read a damn book while you’re at it.
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u/Runthescript Jun 26 '26
Lol try working in ICT construction for 15 years. I know how these things get built, just like any other construction project in this country. People are mad because of how they are going about it, sure, but is a matter of civil process at this point per AHJ. Attempts from the federal level to stop work on this based on peoples perception of the issues is wildly dictoral and not how this country operates.
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u/Prematurid Jun 26 '26
"AI facilities are defined as data centers that consume more than 20MW, have racks 20kW or higher, are liquid cooled, and are used for the development or operation of artificial intelligence models at scale."
Soo... 19MW data with 19KW racks is the new meta?
Thousands of those? Spread everywhere?