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Survey shows that nearly half of Americans don't want new data centers built near their homes — 47% oppose the construction of new AI data centers in their neighborhood (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/fuck_ai@lemmy.world
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[–] 7 points 4 months ago (9 children)

There doesn't seem to be a paywall on the source the article links to. From there:

Nearly half (47%) of U.S. residents oppose the construction of an artificial intelligence data center in their neighborhood, while 38% support it.

That seems to leave 15% "no opinion".

Gen Zers (48%) and millennials (50%) are more likely than Gen Xers (38%) and baby boomers (22%) to support data centers in their backyard.

Broken down by political preference, roughly half (49%) of Republicans support the construction of an AI data center in their neighborhood, compared with 36% of Democrats.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago* (5 children)

    I'm wondering why younger generation supports it. Are they thinking it will create jobs (it won't, very few people are need to operate a data center) or it is some other reason?

    I only see drawbacks, like higher energy bills, higher water bills, typically an ugly windowless building.

    With the AI trend there might be some coal power plant kicked off that pollutes the neighborhood like musk does in Tennessee.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (3 children)

    And apparently the noise is relentless and mind-breaking.

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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    I've been in a data center and yes the noise is quite loud from all the fans in servers and AC running, but it is just inside.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    I am by no means an expert but I think most of the noise pollution coming from data centers is outside of the perceptible range for humans.

    This video breaks down infrasound rather well and demonstrates the issues it can pose for people living miles away from the source. This could also have several unstudied consequences for wildlife as well.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    They are less likely to be home owners and understand what actually goes into owning a home, and all of it's problems for decades.

    But they are also the least likely to be voting for, or against data centers so it could also be ignorance.

    It's like if I asked my toddlers opinion of a $500 bounce house.

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