Reading about public opposition to new data centers caused me to ask, “Where have I heard this before?” Concerns about air, noise, water, land use, etc. have been expressed about mining projects for decades. Most mining companies know that these are critical and important issues and make maximum efforts to mitigate and minimize these risks as much as technically feasible.

While these tech companies and developers will obviously need to curtail environmental effects to the maximum extent possible, it will take much more than that to gain trust with the communities where they wish to locate.

From my perspective they are going to have to work a lot harder than they expect. It won’t be with shiny, boilerplate “PR” materials and suffocating messaging. It won’t be with a lack of transparency or understanding that trust and true community commitment are built over time.

Data centers are entering a social and cultural environment that distrusts AI and what may happen to jobs; that question the integrity of elected officials, and where communities haven’t seen much involvement or benefits from megacorporations.

For example, I live in Silicon Valley, and whether the perception is correct or not, many residents don’t see that prominent tech companies are very involved or interested in being active community participants or by supporting local non-profit organizations. Nor have I personally seen that any of the companies are interested in my industry experience or knowledge.

Data centers are going to be incredibly and increasingly needed, but those siting them may first have to undergo a much larger and longer learning curve than anticipated, or that is asserted by an AI summary.