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Exposing The Dark Side of America's AI Data Center Explosion | View From Above | Business Insider

Business Insider2 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2025–2026
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documentary · general · 2025–2026 on HN

A Business Insider investigation into the US boom in AI data centers, mapping where they are, who owns them, and how much power and water they consume. It looks at the costs borne by communities, with a focus on Virginia.

Cited in threads on AI infrastructure as evidence of the water, power and community costs of data centers.

9 comments from Hacker News

@e402026-01 · in “Wisconsin communities signed secrecy deals for billion-dollar data centers”

What? A 5 minute drive is miles, and that's plenty far enough. They are currently being built within 100 meters of homes. It's absolutely insane. EDIT: ▶ this video Just watch that and not get hoppin' mad.

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@xavdid2026-06 · in “'Cost Me the Election': Data Centers Trigger Voter Backlash”

> People will claim real harms but the connections are spotty at best. This is a wild claim because it's trivially provable. There's been tons of reporting around the effect they have on the immediate vicinity, and that's without even getting into the unknown long-term effects. Here's a decent piece, but there's plenty more out there if you look at all: ▶ this video Is every single mad person doing investigative reporting and / or living next to a data center? No. But something doesn't have to personally affect me to know it's harmful.

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@e402026-05 · in “Why We've Filed a Referendum”

Watch these link ▶ this video link Then, tell me if you want to live anywhere near those. Then, tell me of a nuclear power plant that has that bad a repo.

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@Joel_Mckay2026-01 · in “The No Fakes Act Has a "Fingerprinting" Trap That Kills Open Source”

These firms can do what they like if and only if they pay for every $7B reactor, the 30k year waste stewardship, and disconnect from community resources people paid for with taxes. However, currently the unethical burden cities with the endless bill for resources, contribute no actual value, and one may spot the data center waste heat signatures and industrial run-off from space. Consider most "AI" firms lost on average $4.50 for every new user, rely on overt piracy, and delusional boards sand-bagging for time... these LLM businesses are simply unsustainable fictions. Many problems don't have simple answers, but one may merely profit by their predictable nature. I would recommend volunteering with a local pet rescue society if you find yourself getting upset about trivia. Have a great day. =3 link link ▶ this video link link

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@Joel_Mckay2026-01 · in “Please Don't Say Mean Things about the AI I Just Invested a Billion Dollars In”

LLM is not real AI, would take 75% of our galaxy energy to reach human level error rates, and is economically a fiction.... but it doesn't have to be "AGI" to cause real harm. link The damage is already clear =3 link link ▶ this video

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