LETTER: Public will subsidize energy consumption of data centers  

To Ozaukee Press:

AI data centers are being proposed all over Wisconsin by big tech corporations. Some of them, like in Port Washington, could use as much energy as an entire city. It’s a gamble that leaves us to pay the costs through increased power bills and environmental degradation.

     Tech giants are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to win the race to develop advanced AI, a technology poised to automate jobs and generate trillions in profit. To achieve this, AI data centers must be significantly larger and consume substantially more electricity and water than traditional data centers.

     Investor-owned utilities like We Energies are happy to accommodate big tech as they stand to profit from AI data centers’ energy consumption. Residential ratepayers will subsidize this private plunder through higher power bills and degradation of our environment, all for a technology focused on automating human jobs.

     We cannot be expected to sit idly with no voice while our futures are gambled away by big tech. We have the right to take action to prevent AI data centers.

Joshua Taylor

Milwaukee