We are researching and providing recommendations to mitigate the damaging impacts on humans of the environmental harms caused by data centers, with a focus on AI and generative AI data centers. We know that AI data centers — most often built near low-income and at-risk communities — deplete and contaminate water resources, pollute the air, cause urban heat islands, and displace populations. While some research has been conducted on the environmental impacts of AI data centers, very little has been done on the harms those impacts have on humans’ health, livelihood, and access to food and clean water. Our goal is to assess these effects, including through interviews with community members, and provide recommendations to both tech companies building and operating AI data centers and relevant policy makers globally to better mitigate the environmental harms posed by AI data centers to humans.
