Op-Ed: AI Data Centers Are the New Environmental Burden Black Communities Didn’t Ask For

Joint Center Tech Policy Director Danielle Davis, Esq. authored an op-ed published in Essence on the economic and environmental strain AI data centers pose to Black and lower-income communities.

From the op-ed: “It’s easy to talk about artificial intelligence as something abstract–software in the cloud, algorithms behind a screen, innovation happening somewhere far away. But for many Black communities across the country, AI is no longer theoretical. It’s loud. It’s physical. And it’s showing up next door in the form of massive data centers that demand enormous amounts of electricity, water, and land–often in communities that had little say in whether they arrived at all.”

Click here to read the essay.