5 Fascinating Things I've Learned Covering Data Centers in Maryland
I used to try and avoid thinking too much about things as if it were some personal defect. Now, I've fully dived into who I am.
She paused, her eyes narrowing at me as she adjusted her glasses.
“You overanalyze things. How did you even get there? You do this a lot.”
I felt myself shrink into my seat. Normally, I loved that English class. I beamed when my teacher announced that I was the only fifth grader in her class to get a perfect score on the standardized exam. I not only read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer there, I found myself trying to draft colloquial language for the first time so I could write like Mark Twain.
But that criticism seared into my mind. Even now, as an adult, I can have valid concerns and still have to stop and wonder, “Am I thinking too much? Am I overanalyzing this?”
The truth is, maybe I am. And sometimes I do. But I’ve come to see this trait as a strength to lean into rather than a critique to correct—particularly in my work as a reporter, where it allows me to recognize patterns within the reporting and in human behavior, so I can ask questions that get to the why as opposed to just the what.
Analysis has become the bedrock of my social media style, growing my following to more than 20k people in a little over six months across Instagram and TikTok.
And it’s what I have used with my reporting on data centers, the massive buildings going up across the country to power artificial intelligence. If you’ve been following, I’ve spent months reporting on this subject from different angles. The DMV has become ground zero for data center development, hosting the largest concentration of them in the world, less than an hour from where I live. I’ve grown fascinated with all parts of it.
These are my broad thoughts on the subject, summarized in five points.
1. It’s not just a tech story
The data center story connects to so many things. It’s a power and influence story. A water story. A land use story. A community movement story. An energy story. An economic growth story. A local accountability story. And a national security story. These data centers are changing the American landscape at a rapid pace.
2. The data center resistance is a coalition you wouldn’t expect
Few things have brought Americans together quite like opposition to data centers. Socialist groups angry about surveillance and corporate power. Environmentalists fighting air pollution and water depletion. Residents who just opened their electric bill and want to know why it doubled. Conservatives pissed about eminent domain and transmission lines cutting through their farmland.
3. Local movements have gone national
The resistance in Prince George’s County that led to a moratorium was one of the first, but it has spread. County after county has followed. Now Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are calling for a national pause on data center development. What started in community meetings is now in Congress.
4. The push to build is not stopping
Utility and generation companies stand to receive a massive payday. AI firms have billions in investment behind them. Local officials are looking for tax revenue and infrastructure dollars. AI leaders are literally discussing building data centers in space. That tells you everything you need to know about how intense the will is, among some very powerful and very wealthy groups, to keep this moving forward.
5. Americans are weighing the costs and benefits of AI
There’s no question that artificial intelligence is changing the way people live and work, and increasingly people are turning to it for all kinds of reasons. But they’re also asking real questions about what AI demands from them and what they’re actually getting in return.
Each of these points can take you on a journey through your own thoughts. And in many instances, your ideas may be more “overanalytical” than anything I would come up with. (I’ve seen some of the comments on the stories, Lol.)
I hope this helps as we collectively think through some of the issues impacting us today.
My fifth-grade self would be relieved to know that the thing she was told to fix turned out to be something worth keeping.
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