'Who wouldn't want a large-scale industrial polluter sitting in their backyard?': California residents ban data centers as public backlash grows
- Monterey Park becomes the first city to ban data center building
- Elsewhere, public opinion is turning against data center construction
- There are concerns over expense, pollution, and electricity use
As well as developing new models and pushing subscriptions, AI companies have something else to worry about: getting enough data centers built. The California city Monterey Park just became the first to ban the building of these processing hubs, amid growing worries over costs, energy use, and pollution.
The vote from the citizens of Monterey Park was pretty emphatic too, with The Guardian reporting that 86.3% of the community wanted nothing to do with data centers. The issues mentioned on the ballot included the protections for air quality, drinking water, public health, and electricity and water rates.
There's growing evidencefor the harms that data centers can do to the environment, through creating local urban 'heat islands', producing noise pollution from...
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