FARGO -- The good folks of Harwood, N.D., are voicing legitimate concerns about a massive artificial intelligence data center being built in their backyard and they might as well be yelling into the brunt of a tsunami. The people who matter aren't listening and don't care anyway.
The company bringing this so-called economic development to Harwood, Texas-based Applied Digital, is so sympathetic one of its spokesmen called opposition to the project "obnoxious" and had the following message for those who spoke out:
"Some folks are frustrated. They're frustrated that this may exist, they are also frustrated with the idea that some things in this world exist, that have nothing to do with Applied Digital, or nothing to do with us, or nothing to do with that town or this state," Nick Phillips told WDAY-TV.
Translation for those who might not understand his language: Go flip yourself.
Meanwhile, Harwood's leadership starting with Mayor Blake Hankey was as transparent as a brick wall. And the state of North Dakota, well, it's nicely on the way to achieving its goal of becoming America's industrial park.
Oil rigs, coal plants, pipelines and data centers to go with those amber waves of grain.
Prediction: In their next session, North Dakota legislators will pass a law limiting the power of local government to regulate data centers. Because local control is king until it isn't.
Data centers are coming to North Dakota, possibly near you, and there's not a thing you can do about it.
There are a few hard facts about these things, which in layman's terms are large buildings needed to provide infrastructure for the massive computing power and storage needed for artificial intelligence.
No. 1, they are here and there will be more of them. By "here" we mean everywhere. By "more" we mean lots more. It's inevitable in our tech-driven world.
No. 2, they consume gargantuan amounts of energy and water, despite the propaganda put forth by the data center industry and its apologists. Consumers are rightly concerned about rising energy bills and residents are rightly concerned about water resources and the environment.
No. 3, data center companies like Applied Digital are often purposely opaque in their dealings, keeping their intentions vague and sometimes requiring non-disclosure agreements in order to avoid scrutiny until it's too late. Like in Harwood.
There are those, too, who question whether the long-term jobs promised by data centers and compliant politicians ever really materialize.
There are some states and cities putting up a fight. Tucson and Phoenix in Arizona are trying to tighten zoning to restrict where data centers can be built. Virginia is an epicenter of pushback. Minnesota cities and its legislature are trying to get a handle on how to better regulate the community and environmental impact of data centers.
In North Dakota, it's likely only the Dakota Resource Council will offer any vocal opposition.
Other than that ... you're on your own, North Dakotans.
If Big Tech wants to plant a massive data center in your backyard you 1) won't know about it until it's a done deal, 2) will have no voice anyway and 3) will get no support from anybody in government who matters.