What will it cost us if the skeptics right, and AI is just a bubble? Suppose lots of those data centers sit empty, like abandoned shopping malls?

Photo above - Xi Jinping, Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party, swears this video released yesterday is NOT a fake/AI. That the first 5,000 robots were just delivered. So America, you'd better watch out!

Transcript of an imaginary phone call which might or might not have taken place:

(Ginormous tech company) – “Good news, everyone! We’re going to build 5 data centers the size of the Pentagon in cornfields 100 miles west of a rust belt city. How soon can you have new power plants approved and built to supply us with electricity?”

(Governor Zeitgeist) – “I’m on it already. My aide will reach out to you later today with the bank account info for my re-election campaign.”

So far so good. No laws are being broken, and the political and corporate classes hold onto power. But suppose those AI monstrosities never get built? Or suppose they are mothballed, and sit empty like shopping malls, after they are built? How much will we pay for that new electric plant construction?

According to the Associated Press link below, the coming onslaught of AI data centers will double or triple the demand for electricity in America in the next few years. And if we don’t supply that juice, the companies will build those data centers in Iceland, Croatia, or Surinam. Cue the Caterpillar D11 bulldozers !!! Or worse yet, we won't have enough American-made robots to fend off the ones coming from China!

But if those data centers aren't needed, then the solar farms, wind farms, or nuclear/coal/natural gas-powered electric plants will be mostly idle. Ordinary users (you and me) will have surcharges on our electric bills to pay for the land, construction, etc. of power plants, even though they aren't operating.

This is a real problem. The Associated Press is talking out of both sides of its mouth. We’re likely to run out of electricity and have our rates double or triple. Or we’re likely to triple the number of power plants and get stuck with a bunch we don’t need.

Should voters have the last word? Would you rather pay triple, or have a brownout? Is it possible to have both at the same time?

The easy answer would be to require each new AI behemoth to have its own dedicated electric power plant. A generator which is also owned and operated by big tech. Are you comfortable with that if it involves nuclear power? How about zoning changes which encircle your picturesque town with wind turbine forests? If people don’t want affordable housing in their neighborhood, are they going to salute the infinite number of towering turbines needed to keep the data centers humming?

It's too soon to say whether AI is going to cure every disease, or put everyone out of work, or end up like Dutch tulips. But only 1 of those outcomes appeals to me.

I’m just sayin’ . . .



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