New York halts construction of big data centers, but people aren’t impressed

What Governor Kathy Hochul believed might bring joy to the public has actually sparked a wave of outrage and criticism targeted at the lawmaker.

The law is set to be signed on Tuesday and will pause data center construction of hyperscalers that require 50 megawatts or more to operate.

Hochul, who has been a keen supporter of AI, wants to ensure that New Yorkers don’t sacrifice their futures for the sake of AI advancement.

“AI data centers are reshaping our future. No one gets to build that future by asking New Yorkers to sacrifice theirs,” said Hochul in a post on X.

This law has been proposed to allow New York lawmakers to assess the environmental and social impacts of data centers.

If signed, the order will be effective immediately and isn’t likely to affect the data demands of back-office financial services, hospitals, or universities, according to The New York Times.

Data center chaos has been widely reported in smaller, rural areas like Wisconsin, which has been heavily impacted by noise pollution, and Wyoming, where wastewater supplies were spiked with deadly bacteria.

However, social media users and communities are divided, with certain communities arguing that this one-year hiatus will cause more harm to New Yorkers.

The court of public opinion isn’t unanimous

Under Hochul’s post, users accused the lawmaker of putting a band-aid over much larger issues.

“New York leadership (that’d be you) has failed us on basic energy needs to the point where we can’t use air conditioning if Taylor Swift is getting married,” said one X user.

“Whose future are you shaping? Asking for a friend who died in a horrific death on a subway under your watch,” said another user.

The Big Apple has been described as the nation's innovator, and New York used to build things like the Empire State Building, the Erie Canal, and the Subway system.

“Now we tear down nuclear plants and ban cutting-edge data centers,” the user said.

A selling point of data centers for the public is the production of jobs in the local area, and users are concerned that this will negatively affect communities.

“Great job, you just caused the loss of hundreds of construction jobs, jobs at the data center. Glad you will be gone in January,” said one X user.

Reddit users characterized New York lawmakers like Hochul and New York mayor Zohran Mamdani as “eco-luddites” who are seemingly tearing down infrastructure to appeal to environmentalists.

“I truly understand the ‘not in my backyard!’ concern…and I'm fully in favor of making goddamn sure people aren't screwed, but the neo-luddite sh*t from Reddit is getting nuts.”

“AI is not you using Free ChatGPT to make sh*tty pictures with 6-fingered people. It's the next generation of technologies,” one Redditor argued.

On the r/Buffalo subreddit, a common sentiment reared its head: the community and the nation rely on data centers, but there’s a stark difference between a typical data center and a hyperscaler.

One user said that hyperscalers are an “entirely different beast” from other local data centers, and comparing the two is like “comparing a gas station to a gas oil refinery.”

“Are outputs the same? Technically. Are they necessary? Maybe, but there are reasonable discussions to be had about quantity, impact, and choice of location.”

While some believe this move is a “smart and responsible approach,” others think it's ample time for the data center “bubble to explode.nia