When the AI boom subsides, the data centers will remain. What we do now matters

Link: Data Centers Now Consume 6% of US Electricity—and the Backlash Has Begun, by Edd Gent at SingularityHubWhen the dotcom boom came to a crashing end, the companies behind it imploded in sometimes spectacular ways, but the infrastructure they built continued to exist. That in turn laid the groundwork for Web 2.0, the cloud revolution, and everything that came afterwards.When we think about the AI boom, we should consider what will be left behind: the infrastructure precedents being set that will be with us for a generation. If I was a betting person (I’m not), I’d put money down on the current crop of AI tech companies imploding at some point, with their assets acquired by companies like Microsoft and Google (who already own the majority of data centers). The applications will flounder, but the data centers will remain — and the energy infrastructure that enables them.As the linked article notes:“Data centers have always been energy-hungry, but the AI explosion is causing computing…