- New data centers are being proposed throughout the United Kingdom
- These are crucial for the development and use of AI, but have disastrous impacts on the environment.
- Technological giants are asking for more expansion
The United Kingdom could be established for an important increase in the number of data centers throughout the country, since the new reports claim that an increase in construction will begin.
Currently, the country has 477 of these data centers, with about 100 more on the way, the BBC Reports, stimulated by the mass increase in the demand for AI, already often funded by US technological giants.
However, the impact on the local environment could be devastating: in the United States, some who live near data centers have lost access to clean drinking water, since local wells have interrupted, and some consumers have seen the energy invoices increase thanks to the extreme use of the centers.
Cloud costs
Data centers are essentially warehouses full of computer storage and infrastructure storage systems, and are both expensive and enormously expensive energy and water consumption.
It is said that a medium -sized data center consumes between approximately 110 million gallons of water per year to cool, and large centers can consume up to 5 million gallons per day, but these data centers now receive advanced government protections, after being designated by critical national infrastructure.
Like these new data centers are being built, the United Kingdom government has published tips on how to address the water deficit and “national” drought, which includes taking shorter showers, not watering the grass and eliminating the old emails.
These data centers have received cash injections from US companies, with up to £ 6.3 billion in the construction and funds of foreign companies so that Great Britain can ‘train and deploy the next generation of AI technologies, most of which develop in the United States.
‘Unlock the AI’ has been a priority for the British government, which has encouraged companies so much to use technology to boost productivity, but it is likely that the environmental cost, as always, falls into common people.