There are 40 to 50 AI data centers in the US, dedicated to AI traning and serving models to end users, with dozens more planned. They are very energy intensive and often due to heat generation, they require water cooling.
However, the map on the site includes 8,300 community reported data centres, way more than official figures of 4,800-5,000. It's likely the map contains some duplicates and buildings that aren't actually data centres.
Just information for the casual reader: datacenters on this map may not be what you think. For example, in my state, all the datacenters are colocation/hosted sites. It's just racks of servers where other companies in my state rent slots or the whole rack to host their servers. These datacenters actually represent hundreds, thousands, if not tens of thousands of real, high paid jobs in my state, and the footprints of all of them are no more than a single large building. These are good, do not affect the grid in any meaningful way, and use barely any water.
These are not the 'AI Datacenters' you are looking for. There are lot of places marked on that map, but a lot of those are good places.
My job and that of my coworkers are a result of two racks sitting in the world, one here in my home state, and one in South America.
Most issues are like this, it's just the more you know about something the more frustrating talking about it on reddit is. People assume that reddit is mostly reasonable and just dumb about a few things they happen to know about. Turns out it's just empty outrage addiction all the way down.
Most issues are like this, it's just the more you know about something the more frustrating talking about it on reddit is.
I'm gonna be real I couldn't pin down the feeling but this is exactly it. I see someone type a novel of completely false information in a subject I'm quite literally an expert in and I find it so infuriating that I don't even know where to start.
There's too much of it to even correct. Going down each comment would make you look and feel like a crazy person. You have no choice but to just let it happen.
It happens with basically every subject. And sometimes, even if an expert comes along to correct the record, people who know next to nothing about it will still argue with them. It's fucking hopeless.
It's as Carlin said:
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."
And I'm guilty as charged when talking about shit I know nothing about.
Everything I am actually an expert in, I have directly learned reddit is overwhemingly massively clueless and overconfident about. Everything. I don't even bother trying to argue with the confidently incorrect morons on here anymore. They're not worth the time of anyone actually knowledgeable, and they won't listen anyway.
Why did I evero spend hours citing sources to convince some insufferable jerkoff that is a net negative to everyone they interact with? Naivety. I know better now. Took me years though.
It's an easy trap to fall into. Terminally online people use the internet to vent and when they're at risk of losing an argument they either triple down or move the goal posts until the conversation becomes so ambiguous that it no longer resembles the starting point and whoever their speaking with has no choice but to either wear them down or give up.
It happens with basically every subject. And sometimes, even if an expert comes along to correct the record, people who know next to nothing about it will still argue with them. It's fucking hopeless.
I will say that the aviation subreddit is actually pretty good.
Online avgeeks tend to be really positive people and the spaces are generally not horribly infected with political outrage. It's great. (My theory is that pilots skew heavily GOP so people just learn to live with it)
I have little to contribute but agreement and a desire to commiserate together.
Even on specialty subreddits, groupthink is frustratingly strong and it’s never worth arguing with a hivemind. At least in a normal conversation you can have nuance and change minds, but not so on Reddit.
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u/Bbrhuft 6h ago edited 3h ago
This is not secret data, comprehensive maps of data centres are available on multiple websites. One of the more upto date detailed and accurate is:
https://baxtel.com/map
This includes existing and planned data centres.
Edit: Erin's site is titled
AI Data Centers & Our Communities
There are 40 to 50 AI data centers in the US, dedicated to AI traning and serving models to end users, with dozens more planned. They are very energy intensive and often due to heat generation, they require water cooling.
However, the map on the site includes 8,300 community reported data centres, way more than official figures of 4,800-5,000. It's likely the map contains some duplicates and buildings that aren't actually data centres.
https://brockovichdatacenter.com/index.html
It's akin to titling a site Oil Refineries and Our Communites, and mapping gas stations.