"When Oregon resident Isabelle Reksopuro heard Google was gobbling up public land to fuel its data centers in her home state, she didn't initially know what to believe. "There's a lot of misinformation about data centers," she said. "Google has denied taking that land.""
"Technically, she explains, The Dalles, a city near the Washington state border, sought to reclaim that land, "and Google is just a big, unnamed power user." The city had in fact asked for ownership of a 150-acre portion of Mount Hood National Forest, claiming it needs access to Mount Hood's watershed to meet municipal needs as its population - 16,010 as of the 2020 census - grows. But critics, including environmentalists, say the city is trying to secure more water for Google, which has a sprawling data center campus in The Dalles that already consumes about one-third of the city's water supply."
"This controversy made Reksopuro curious about the backlash to data centers being built in other communities. So Reksopuro, a student at the University of Washington who studies the connections between tech and public policy, decided to map it out. Using information collected by Epoch AI and data scraped from legislation on data centers, she built an interactive map tracking AI policy around the world."
A resident in Oregon questioned claims about Google taking public land for data centers in her state. The Dalles sought ownership of 150 acres in Mount Hood National Forest to access the watershed for municipal needs as the population grows. Critics argued the city was securing more water for Google, whose data center campus already uses about one-third of the city’s water supply. The controversy led a University of Washington student to investigate backlash to data centers in other communities. She mapped AI policy worldwide by using information from Epoch AI and data scraped from legislation on data centers, creating an interactive map tracking policy developments across countries.
Read at The Verge
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