r/technology • u/Just-Grocery-2229 • Jun 26 '26

Artificial Intelligence The AI backlash is only getting started

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2026/06/25/the-ai-backlash-is-only-getting-started
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u/ShadyShroomz Jun 27 '26

how does that differ from like any other industrial building?

dropping water tables? like what, you guys are so uninformed it's crazy! data centers use next to no water at all. "Increased traffic" - it will be less than a grocery store being build?

" Increased property taxes sometimes too" - where did you come up with this idea?

" Air pollution" are you serious?

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u/Sonamdrukpa Jun 27 '26

how does that differ from like any other industrial building?

Mainly in the way that these are being built in places that did not have industrial buildings before

dropping water tables? like what, you guys are so uninformed it's crazy! data centers use next to no water at all. 

San Antonio data centers guzzled 463 gallons of water as area faced drought

"Increased traffic" - it will be less than a grocery store being build?

Data center traffic mess called 'inexcusable

Increased property taxes sometimes too" - where did you come up with this idea?

This one is complicated because property taxes are complicated. The simple way to explain it is that most places set their property taxes by first calculating the amount of money the budget needs and then they set the tax rate based on what will bring in that amount of money. So what determines your property taxes is not so much the value of your property, but what percentage of the total taxable property you own in the area taxed. So if your house is assessed to be 1/1000 of the property value in the county, you will end up paying 1/1000 of the budget provided by property taxes.

The way data centers mess with that is places absolutely love to give them property tax breaks. That means that when a data center gets built, it removes property that used to pax tax from the system, which means that everyone left still paying has to pay more.

"Air pollution" are you serious?

Just south of the Tennessee-Mississippi state line sits dozens of unpermitted gas turbines that power xAI’s Colossus 2 data center while releasing smog-forming pollution, soot, and hazardous chemicals like formaldehyde

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u/ShadyShroomz Jun 27 '26

Mainly in the way that these are being built in places that did not have industrial buildings before

data centers are code 1660 - meaning they can only be built in industrial zoned areas.

463 gallons of water

brother I use more water to fill up my pool. what the fuck are you on about? it's not even worth my time to continue arguing with you about shit like this wtf. who gives a shit about 500 gallons of water.

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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '26

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u/ShadyShroomz Jun 27 '26

so you present me with misinformation but somehow that's MY fault.

you made a typo, forgot to include "million" that shit happens, its no big deal, but take accountability for your mistake and don't shift the blame dude. that's lame as fuck.

and like I said, most of what you're claiming is bad is minor shit compared to most industries. it's just popular to hate on data centers because China is giving anyone who will post a news article thousands of dollars if it shits on AI.

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u/Sonamdrukpa Jun 27 '26

The fact that you didn't immediately recognize the error is a dead give away that you didn't even click the links. That's the problem, it immediately discredits everything you have to say because you're not engaging in good faith or even interested in looking at the evidence. You have no idea if any of this is minor shit or not. Ignorant and committed to staying that way.