this post was submitted on 09 May 2026
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335
AI data center bans are rapidly multiplying across the US — 69 jurisdictions block new builds, with four moves noted as permanent (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 4 days ago by sanitation@lemmy.radio to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 61 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Hyperscaling is so obviously bad for market stability that it should be regulated out of existence.

Its entire aim is to buy a near-monopoly by pouring oceans of cash into an industry explicitly for the purpose of eliminating the chance of actual competition.

Unless you're in the club and have access to unlimited money, you cannot compete with people willing to buy all of the inputs at inflated prices while selling the service at a loss for years.

The fact that a company with an infinity checkbook can show up in a county and disrupt their entire economy without any real penalty for failure is just more evidence of this.

But, did you see that ballroom? Totally worth it...

[–] ravenaspiring@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Don't forget this is an international game though. China is playing this game.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 15 points 4 days ago

Their resources are focusing on the science and practical applications of machine learning and neural networks, robotics for example.

In the US our resources are allocated towards fleecing investors with a flashy use-case that doesn't have much practical use.

All of these tech companies, who are themselves heavily invested in the LLM bubble, are trying to push LLMs into everything. On top of that they're using these artificially inflated adoption statistics to project future demand and then using that modeling to justify massive spending on hardware and datacenters, creating all kinds of secondary effects from the collapse of the consumer computing industry to local resource issues around power and water.

This is all resulting in massive negative sentiment on the topic of 'AI' (see: any social media post where AI is mentioned). Secondary effects of this are things like lower rates students entering the CS/ML field. After all, why try for a CS degree if everyone around you is saying that AI will replace all programmers or go into a field that is massively unpopular?

There's also the opportunity cost of not putting resources towards other use-cases, like medicine and robotics leading to those fields falling farther behind other countries.

China has plenty of their own problems, but on this topic they at least have adults in the room making rational decisions. The US's AI strategy is being decided by whatever sociopaths happen to have won the stock market lottery and the executives operating the companies who can only see as far as their next quarter's bonuses.

[–] Soulphite@reddthat.com 26 points 4 days ago

[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@anarchist.nexus 15 points 4 days ago

69 jurisdictions

Nice

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 15 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Cool, do a pedophile ban next.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

I think there are existing laws covering that topic

[–] Soulphite@reddthat.com 4 points 4 days ago

Pedophile eradication policy.

[–] GideonD@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I'm from VA, which has more data centers in the state than any other in the country. They want to push even more into place and our local and state government seems to be all for it. All it's doing is costing us money so AI companies can cash in on all the people that want to make stupid memes. The modern world sucks.

[–] xXSirDanglesXx@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Not to mention the cost of electricity in VA continues to rise because these data centers keep sucking up all the electricity on our grid. Wait'll wintertime and your electric bill is gonna be more than tripled.

Source: am electrician who works in data centers

[–] GideonD@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Thankfully I have gas heat and so far the weather has been pretty cool for the current time of year so my AC hasn't had to run at all. I hope we have a mild summer. I've seen some of the insane electric bills around here lately and how much of them is actual usage vs all the fees. Usage doesn't count for much these days.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Virtually all of these are temporary moratoriums, most-likely to let the city examine impact of some proposed development and gather feedback.

There are three permanent bans in force:

  • Pemberton Township, New Jersey (27k people)

  • Warrenton, Virginia, specific 42-acre area (10k people)

  • Weaverville, North Carolina (4.5k people)

St. Charles, Missouri is also listed as permanent, but the text says that there is a temporary moratorium with a proposed permanent ban.

Note that this and most of the others do not appear to be specific to anything AI-related; this is all data centers.

[–] sanitation@lemmy.radio 4 points 4 days ago

If it raises my electric bill - I don't need it near me.

[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 12 points 4 days ago

Am I seeing this right, there's even one in Texas?

All hope is not lost.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 7 points 3 days ago

Seattle is getting on board, too.

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2026/05/seattles-plan-for-new-mega-data-centers-includes-one-year-moratorium-and-utility-rate-proposals/

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 8 points 4 days ago

Good. Keep that shit out of here. They should tear down all the currently built AI datacenters.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

Fuck yeah.

If only it had happened a few years sooner, but better late than ever. Shut down these sons of bitches who think that, simply because the law didn't yet imagine they'd outright steal people's resources, that it's "socially permissible". Bastards.

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Datacenters are going to heat up the us so much. Thats exceptionally bad for the people and environment around them.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

that's... the least of our concerns.

it's the increase of resource demand on power, water, and increase of industrial waste.

additional heat to an environment is like being concerned about winter being "too cold". the real problem isn't why, but how.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

All your power and water are belong to us

[–] teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago

Tech is paying off governors to cancel local prohibitions, and the feds might be paid off to try to pre-empt any of these local laws too although idk if they can legally.