About this episode
The episode discusses the opposition to large AI data centres in rural America, focusing on environmental concerns and economic implications.
The world’s largest data centre (62sq miles) has been approved in Utah, but there is growing opposition towards the project. At twice the size of Manhattan with promises to create thousands of jobs, we look at the bi partisan opposition against it. In this episode, Justin and Anthony discuss the enormous buildings being built across rural America, to house the huge amounts of data that A.I companies work with. Tech bosses say the centres are essential to the growth of Artificial Intelligence. Also, for many of these companies, now valued at billions of dollars, their stock price is based on data centres which need to be approved and built. But there are growing bi partisan which range from the environmental impact, water pollution, electricity usage, sound pollution, falling property prices and their impact on the landscape of rural America. We hear from the journalist and author Robert Bryce, who is an energy specialist and Substack columnist. He has been geographically tracking the development and opposition to data centres across the United States and has interesting observations on how this compares with the development of wind and solar energy. HOSTS: • Justin Webb, Radio 4…
People in this episode
Hosts: Justin Webb, Anthony Zurcher
Guest: Robert Bryce
Topics covered
- AI data centres
- rural America
- environmental impact
- job creation
- bipartisan opposition
Keywords
- AI
- data centres
- rural America
- environmental impact
- job creation
- bipartisan opposition
- Robert Bryce
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: BBC News
Places: Utah, Manhattan, United States
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