Stalling on AI helps China. Unchecked growth shifts the bill to families

America is having the wrong argument about AI data centers. One side sees windowless industrial giants devouring electricity and water while shifting the infrastructure bill onto families who are already struggling. The other sees the physical foundation of the next scientific revolution and warns that every local delay is a direct gift to Beijing. Both have merit.

Data centers are not new. They already host your bank records, medical files, family photos, and municipal databases. Treating them as if they arrived with ChatGPT is historical amnesia. What has changed with artificial intelligence is not their existence, but their velocity and density.