Amazon’s $1B plan to combat data center backlash draws more backlash
Amazon praised for ending NDAs but slammed for downplaying data center pollution.
Amazon praised for ending NDAs but slammed for downplaying data center pollution.
The short version
- On Friday, Amazon committed to donating more than $1 billion over the next five years to communities neighboring data centers.
- Regarding the latter, Amazon promised to be “water positive” by 2030, while claiming that 75 percent of projects have already met this goal.
- Rolling out these commitments, Amazon seemed bent on convincing Americans that the swelling data center backlash is based on lies.
What happened
Echoing Donald Trump’s claims that foreign disinformation campaigns are fueling widespread protests, Garman urged that calls for data moratoriums must end or else American frontier AI might fall behind China’s. According to Garman, US rivals are trying to “trick us into slowing down,” and Amazon’s commitments are meant to reassure Americans that everything’s okay and that we should instead plow ahead, as Trump endlessly advocates.
Why it matters
Most problematic, Stand.Earth suggested, is Amazon’s plan to back a power plant that experts expect will become the largest source of US climate pollution.
Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Ars Technica via the links above and below.