A pair of progressive lawmakers in Congress are teaming up to push for a moratorium on the construction of AI data centers until nationwide safeguards are put in place — dividing members of their party as more states consider projects of their own.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., introduced the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center Moratorium Act in March, seeking a federal suspension of data center construction until national protections are put in place. Those protections, they say, should include assurances that the economic gains of centers will benefit workers rather than just Big Tech owners, the centers will not increase electricity or utility prices, or that construction will not harm surrounding communities or the environment.
“AI and robotics are creating the most sweeping technological revolution in the history of humanity. The scale, scope and speed of that change is unprecedented,” Sanders said in a statement at the time. “Bottom line: We cannot sit back and allow a handful of billionaire Big Tech oligarchs to make decisions that will reshape our economy, our democracy and the future of humanity. We need serious public debate and democratic oversight over this enormously consequential issue.”
The bill has yet to gain much traction in Congress. But it has exposed some intraparty divisions on the issue.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia called the proposal “idiocy” when asked about a federal moratorium during an Axios summit in March. Warner warned that putting a pause on data center projects in the United States would only give adversarial nations such as China an advantage.
“The idea that we’re going to stuff this back into the bottle, this genie, that’s a ridiculous premise,” Warner said.
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez’s bill would seek to address some of those concerns by putting in place restrictions on U.S. exports going to foreign countries unless the recipient has similarly established safeguards to “guarantee AI is safe and effective, workers are protected and AI does not harm the environment.”
The debate comes as more states consider their own projects, including Utah, which just approved the construction of an AI data center in Box Elder County. That project has elicited widespread protests and pushback from opponents who worry the facility would threaten water resources in the area, particularly with the shrinking Great Salt Lake.
Plans for the data center first came to light last month, sparking public debate over the environmental impacts it would have on the Great Salt Lake and the surrounding region. The center would take up about 40,000 acres across three plots of undeveloped land in the county.
The centers would then be powered by 9 gigawatts of power-generating capacity, likely from natural gas-fired plants — another element that has sparked concern about the proposal.
But developers say the center would boost the U.S. military’s access to artificial intelligence and cloud-computing capabilities, therefore helping to counter attacks by adversarial nations.