Why doomsday warnings are not the only threat to the AI juggernaut

ByFaisal IslamEconomics editorThere is an eerie low hum that emanates from data centres, where tens of thousands of chips make trillions of computations a second to help drive the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.

These chips power the text, images and video generated by the queries made by the world of the advanced AI models.

Their computations, which are in effect the switching on and off of microscopic silicon transistors that make up a chip, are actually silent. But, as with all computers, almost every watt of the significant electricity powering this process leaves as heat, and the sound you can hear is the slow whir of thousands of fans required to prevent the heat from frying the racks of servers. Depending on the size of the site, you may also hear the thrum of transformers in substations channelling electricity.

In recent days, alarming warnings of threats to humanity have created a din, but it is these low hums that have stirred a backlash in the US which now threatens to envelop its mid-term elections, and could cross the Atlantic and come to the UK.

In the US, the opposition to data centres is most overt on the political left. Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders has called for a moratorium on any new construction. "People are looking around worried about how quickly the technology is moving, how little control they have over it, how will data centres impact their community in terms of electric rates and water utilisation," he told me.

It's possible that a global AI race travelling at Silicon Valley's top speeds could be about to hit the buffers of very localised political and environmental concerns.

In the US, polling by Gallup published in May suggested having a data centre in your area was more unpopular than having a nuclear power station. On data centres, 71% were opposed, including 48% strongly opposed. For nuclear power stations 53% were opposed, including 34% strongly opposed. This unpopularity has grown over the past two years, with some polls suggesting half of Americans support a total pause on their construction.

There has been opposition to some of these developments in the UK too, from Buckinghamshire and Berkshire to Brick Lane in east London, with locals fearing their areas will be negatively impacted.

In Brick Lane, plans for a data centre likely to service the City of London's high frequency traders face a backlash from those who would prefer to see more social housing and local business developments in the capital's east end. Meanwhile in the shires, the sheer demand for data centres sees pressure to expand provision from Slough, into the leafy countryside.

The UK has the third highest number of data centres in the world, one spot ahead of China. The US has the most.

Back in the US, this backlash is being reflected in what politicians standing in critical elections in November are saying.

The backlash is clearly more pronounced among Democrats on the left, but anti-data-centre sentiment is clear among Republican supporters too. City councils have been voted out in response to their policies on data centres, while some whole states - both red and blue - are proposing bans.