Guest opinion column by Laurie Fuller, published in Pinal Post’s Opinion section. Views are the author’s own.
AI – I hate it, but I use it, and feel guilty doing so… right?!
The potential for data centers to devastate our beautiful desert — drain our already too scarce water supply, max out the power we already don’t have — driving up our costs and necessitating the building of gas generating plants, turning up the desert heat, poisoning our night sky… I could go on and on — keeps me thinking, asking questions, and trying to get our Supervisors to do the same.
Data centers. In trying to protest them, we are faced with incredibly tight timelines — being so overwhelmed by the onslaught of them that many of us just give up before we even start. It’s a near impossible task of coming up with arguments that might break the “economic growth at any cost” mantra that the Supervisors seem to bow down to. Dealing with the constant bombardment of rezoning cases to “pave” the way (yes, pun totally intentional), for these data centers has me using AI for stats, figures… anything to create some recognition of the almost inevitable negative ramifications of these crazy fast hearings and seemingly under-studied decisions. In my efforts to slow the “hyper cycle/gold rush” type of frenzy driving these decisions, demanding some controls before they become irreversible, I use my keyboard… and therein lies the paradox. I use it, in order to fight it.
Does that make me a hypocrite? Yes — absolutely! But is there a fine line here? I think so, but I’m really good at justifying my poor choices.
So here is a question for everyone: Can we live without AI? Do we need to, or are there a few steps we can take to mitigate it? What about using AI on demand ONLY? What about protesting the insidious algorithms that are leading us down the rabbit hole into complete, not addiction, but habit, of no longer thinking for ourselves? What about pressing the pause button on more data centers until we smarten up and start to push back and legislate its unwanted presence into every aspect of our communication?
Seriously, when I send a congratulatory post, or message, or email, to a friend about a great barrel run, or a horsemanship pattern, do I really need AI to tell me how fast the horse went? Seriously??
NO! I know how fast horses can go — I’ve been run away with more times than I can count! Do I need to know how expensive horses are? NO! I pay the bills, I watch sales where horses sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Do I really really want a new Jeff Smith saddle? Well of course — but at over $5,000 even the rest of my birthdays and Mother’s Day “credits” won’t cover it, and I sure don’t need AI to tell me how much better I could ride if I owned one!!
I DO NOT need AI to relentlessly and unnecessarily prompt me with links so I can be informed about stuff I already know… do they think I’m an idiot, or are they trying to turn me into one?
Sorry, I digress (my specialty). What about if we took away those algorithms? What about if we used the same controls that they use to control us, on them?
This walk down the path to having AI telling us to breathe is dangerous and insidious — the researchers KNOW our brains are shrinking because of our use of AI. Am I naive enough to think we can, or will, or even should, walk it back to pre-internet. Nope. But what if we walked it back so we get to CHOOSE when we use it?
How many data centers could we disappear if we did? Is this worth figuring out? Just like the ACTUAL number of tax dollars from a data center that the County will PUT IN THE BANK… not paper money, not promises that evaporate when the incentives, exclusions, and evasions, are enacted? How about we STUDY this first? Just how much is the price tag on a fresh, clean glass of water from a well that hasn’t gone dry? A saguaro? The habitat for every desert tortoise? The meals for the raptors that live on that land? The clarity of the night sky? What will be the cost once they are all gone? Not forgetting, the people that live closest, are they being sacrificed to the almighty tax dollar (disappearing and otherwise) and for our (calculated and opportunized) dependence on AI?
What is the REAL bottom line of the cost of paving paradise, so we can continually be told useless drivel we already know?
Why can’t this gallop (see how I used a horse analogy here), towards the immeasurable and probably irreversible damage this march (at best), or red carpet roll out (at worst), rezoning for the data centers be slowed? What will we leave for our grandchildren when the aridification of the desert that the pavement and massive buildings that data centers exemplify happens? Can’t we just say WHOA, or at least sit back in the saddle? Put some guardrails in place first?
Why can’t we take one SMALL step towards understanding the entire picture, and CONTINUE any and all data center rezone cases, until Pinal County demands answers with REAL numbers, or undertakes an INDEPENDENT study and creates a CODE or an ordinance BEFORE passing the MONSTER called La Osa? (and the many other energy consuming monsters, just waiting in the queue)
Maybe if we all started to yell every time our phone or our computer offered a prompt to tell us how bad salt is for us when we look up a recipe, or that sunscreen is necessary when we check the weather. Seriously… how much power and water does it waste just to piss me off? I could ask AI, but I won’t. Yelling at it is better for my peace of mind and the environment.
Laurie Fuller happily resides (and rides) in Thunderbird Farms/Hidden Valley just south of the City of Maricopa where she can delight in sunsets over the mountains across an open vista. She is getting more opinionated every year of her life, and will fight to try to preserve some semblance of open spaces, (not the walled in 30′ parks the developers call open space), habitat for our desert friends, cactuses and creatures alike, and RURAL areas in Pinal County where she and her husband’s grandchildren can run and ride like the wind.
