The technology industry has failed to convince the public when it comes to AI.
Data centers have become a hot topic, with the vast majority of Americans – in an ever-growing bipartisan cohort – now openly opposed to them.
Meanwhile, panicked leaders desperately try to pivot the message to gain some support, in last-ditch efforts that don’t prove successful.
As such, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman today made the case in a 3,000-word blog post for communities to embrace data centers, arguing that the United States “cannot afford to lose” the AI race, citing the country’s post-World War II highway construction as a parallel.
“Like the national highway system, our nation’s economy, national security, and daily life will benefit enormously,” he wrote.
The executive accused the media of spreading “disinformation and outright lies,” arguing that “in the age of social media and 24/7 information, myths take hold faster than ever.” Garman even alleged that U.S. adversaries were “intentionally sowing disinformation in the United States about data centers to get us to slow down.”
“Currently, more than 100 data center moratoriums are being considered across the country,” Garman wrote. “If these measures are adopted, the United States could find itself on the losing end of this race, and the consequences would span generations. »
In his blog post, Garman attempted to dispel concerns that data centers were driving up electricity prices and producing huge amounts of pollution – despite there being plenty of evidence to the contrary.
These attempts to dispel the “myths” should come as no surprise, given the enormous backlash. But given the vested interest in downplaying these concerns, we should take Garman’s efforts with a huge grain of salt.
Last year, leaked internal Amazon documents showed executives trading notes on how to keep the public in the dark about the “true extent” of the massive amounts of water used by their data centers.
Earlier this year, Axios also reported that Amazon’s AI development has led to an unprecedented increase in the company’s emissions, despite its commitment to achieving a net-zero carbon footprint by 2040.
Although Garman says it’s “untrue” that data centers generate huge amounts of carbon emissions with backup diesel generators, we’ve seen plenty of evidence to the contrary. In Texas alone, dozens of AI data center facilities use environmentally harmful generators by exploiting regulatory loopholes.
Although Garman doesn’t want to admit it, energy prices do indeed cause electricity bills to skyrocket, a fact that is certainly not an example of “deceptive and convenient scapegoating.”
He also tried to claim that “thousands of construction jobs are created to build data centers,” without mentioning that most of those jobs disappear once built.
If anything, Garman’s desperate plea – which ends with the announcement of the creation of a “new community program” with the cutesy name “Building Together” – underlines the extent to which the industry has lost ground. This week again, a The Wall Street Journal One poll found that 62% of Americans favored a pause on AI data center construction, with 40% saying it was a top priority.
Undermining the very real concerns of citizens across the country is unlikely to reduce these numbers.
Learn more about data centers: Data centers are a $6 trillion time bomb, analysts warn
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