This map tracks 4,000 AI data centers being built-and reveals where the biggest boom is

A crowdsourced website launched by Erin Brockovich tracks more than 4,000 major AI data centers across the United States. The site provides a platform for the public to raise concerns about AI data centers in their communities by listing locations that are already operating, under construction, rumored, or proposed. The map focuses on areas where communities are actively voicing concerns. The project frames AI infrastructure expansion as unfolding town by town, with outcomes varying by location, including acceptance, delays, disputes, or abandonment. Scientists and community activists argue that large data centers increase energy demand and utility bills, use water supplies, and contribute to environmental pollution, with disproportionate siting in lower-income areas. A study also links data centers to heat islands that can raise city temperatures by up to 4 degrees.

"The Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting website aims to give the public "a platform to speak up and voice concerns about AI data centers in their communities" by naming where they are "already operating, under construction, rumored or proposed projects . . . focusing on locations where communities are actively voicing concerns.""

""The RACE to build AI infrastructures is unfolding town by town across America," Brockovich said on the website. "In some places, data centers are welcomed. In others, they are delayed, contested or abandoned altogether. This MAP captures the real-world footprint of that race-revealing patterns of growth, conflict and uncertainty.""

"Scientists and community activists argue that massive data centers, needed to power Big Tech's AI boom, create a whole host of problems that drain local communities by raising energy demand and utility bills, tapping water supplies, and polluting the environment. They also argue that the data centers are disproportionately located in lower-income areas."

"As Fast Company recently reported, a new study from Arizona State University shows data centers also create " heat islands," making already-warm American cities even hotter by as many as 4 degrees."

Read at Fast Company