šŸ’žAI is in the airšŸ’ž

AI isn’t ā€œin the cloud.ā€

AI is in your lungs.

This week made that impossible to ignore.

Because data centers are pushing obsolete peaker plants back into service.

Read that again.

We spent a decade promising cleaner grids.
Then we built a machine that eats electricity
and the grid said:
ā€œCool. Here’s some oil and gas from 1998.ā€

One example in the reporting hits like a punch:
a plant slated to shut down stays alive because AI demand made it profitable again.

So while AI founders do victory laps about ā€œefficiency,ā€
entire neighborhoods get the bill.
Higher local pollution.
Higher power prices.
More grid stress.

And if you think this is a temporary glitch, look around:
Data center builders are literally bringing in jet-engine turbines to get power faster because grid hookups take years.

This is what the AI boom looks like when it hits physics.

Not vibes.
Not demos.
Not a benchmark chart.

Steel.
Fuel.
Permits.
And ā€œsorry, we need this plant one more year.ā€

Here’s the take people keep dodging:

If your AI strategy does not include an energy strategy,
you are not building the future.

You are outsourcing the consequences.

And the consequences are showing up first in the same places they always do:
communities with the least leverage
getting the most exposure.

AI is becoming infrastructure.
Infrastructure gets regulated.
And if we don’t regulate it with teeth,
the market will ā€œsolveā€ it the usual way:
burn what’s cheap
and apologize later.

Repost if you want more people to connect AI to reality.
Like and follow if you want the uncomfortable version of AI news every week.

Reply

or to participate.