Welcome back to Power Play! Each week, senior writer Molly Taft tackles a topic around this midterm season’s biggest issue: data centers. If you’ve got a question or thought for the column, feel free to shoot Molly an email at [email protected] or reach them securely on Signal at mollytaft.76. “What on earth are they building
Welcome to the first edition of Power Play! From now until the midterms, senior writer Molly Taft will be sharing their thoughts every Sunday on this political season’s hottest issue: data centers. We welcome reader comments, and will be answering questions from the comments section in future editions. Be sure to catch WIRED’s first livestream
RICHMOND, Va. — Wisconsin’s candidates for governor want to limit them, while Pennsylvania’s say they support a ban. A Michigan congressional candidate called them “un-American.” A Florida Senate candidate is selling merch opposing them. Across the country and up and down ballots, candidates from both parties are increasingly on the attack over Flock cameras, the
Inside the G20 event in Chapel Hill, N.C. this week, tech leaders like OpenAI’s Sam Altman raved about AI’s capabilities and the need to build more data centers. But outside, protestors struck a different tune. In a “fireside chat” with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Altman called AI “incredible magic of intelligence in a bottle,” while
AI is expanding faster than any technology in history, propelled by competing hyperscalers and millions of users. And as a result, the data centers built to enable this growth have drawn scrutiny from communities and across party lines, including concerns over higher electric bills. But there’s also an emerging imbalance: OpenAI, Google and Meta can
WASHINGTON — A plan by the Environmental Protection Agency could make it harder for the public to learn about and comment on proposed AI data centers that have sparked backlash in communities across the United States and transformed the midterm election landscape. The EPA proposal would eliminate a federal requirement that states notify the public