Benjamin Kincaid
DemocraticQ1 America has a growing artificial intelligence (AI) industry, supporting cutting edge innovation and reshaping businesses, but raising concerns about education, ownership, and security. Application of AI technology has increased the demand placed on data centers, controversial for their resource use (such as water and land) and raising utility costs. What are your policy positions in regards to data centers and AI? What sources of evidence informed these policies?
Some politicians want to ban AI data centers. That is a bumper sticker not a policy. The same reflex that gave us “defund the police.” It sounds tough and solves nothing. We need AI data centers. They are critical infrastructure for our economy, national security and the technology millions of people rely on every day. The answer is not to ban them. It is to regulate the real problems and hold builders to a high standard.
Every legitimate concern has a solution we can require. Cooling does not have to drain local water. Closed loop systems can run with almost no operational water use. Facilities can be sited away from homes so noise is not a factor. And they do not have to strain the public grid or raise your utility bills . They can generate their own power. Meta’s new data center in Alberta is a useful model of that approach. Self generated power, closed loop cooling and remote industrial siting.
I would rather write smart rules that get this right than chase a slogan that sends the jobs and investment somewhere else.