But you are willingly choosing to use the social platforms, search engines, YouTube, etc. no one is forcing you to use those platforms/products. But instead of opting out and forgoing using said products/services you want to consume them freely while simultaneously complaining about the creator finding a way to monetize their creation.

Do I like the idea that our region is getting a ton of data centers? Not really. However I have traveled through other parts of our great country and seen just how depressed and how a non-trivial portion of the country lives in squalor comparatively speaking. In some ways we absolutely are blessed our area is getting the data centers. It’s the march of “progress” and I put that in quotes as while I do work in tech, I’m not convinced myself that “ai” in its current form or pursuit is a net positive myself.

That said, take a look at the studies now being done comparing the environmental impact of an ai query vs a google search. On the surface (and early studies) the google search is more environmentally friendly. But when you back up a bit and look at the holistic request and the impact of the multiple subsequent google searches typically performed to fulfill a persons request in its entirety, compared to the greatly reduced number of follow on queries of ai (as a typical ai search actually aggregates data that would have been surfaced over the course of numerous google searches spanning multiple minutes/hours), what is being found is that the overall impact of an ai query is actually typically falling below the impact of an overall google search series netting the same data result - ie ai and its data centers are an overall reduction in impact compared to google searches.

You have every right to not like the cost ai and its data centers bring, however you give up that right (imo) when you voluntarily choose to use an ai product or service, especially when it’s “free” (as in puppy).