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We Saw What AI Data Centers Don't Want You to See — Transcript

by PBS Terra · 3,485 words · 471 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:01- Wow.
0:02It's just pouring out of that stack.
0:04When you see this much color on the screen like
0:06this, what does that tell you?
0:07- It's showing a heat signature, so we know
0:09that pollution is happening at this site.
0:12- This is Stargate, one
0:14of the largest AI data centers in the world.
0:17It's currently under construction in rural Texas.
0:19Stargate will eventually include 4 million square feet
0:22of buildings across 1100 acres
0:25that's larger than Central Park.
0:28- When we get a look at it, we'll get a real sense
0:30of the scale that is involved here.
0:32I mean, this is a massive, massive site.
0:35- It's estimated that by the year 2030,
0:37companies will have invested nearly $7 trillion in data
0:40center infrastructure in a race to dominate the AI market.
0:44But this race to build AI superiority is happening so fast.
0:48Many are concerned that companies might be cutting corners
0:51or taking advantage of regulatory loopholes,
0:54especially when it comes to the electricity
0:57and water required to run these massive data centers
1:02down down.
1:04Not ever want any questions answered.
1:07We just want it stopped.
1:08People over profit,
1:11people all over the US are raising the alarm about the
1:13impacts that these data centers could have on their health,
1:17their homes, and their livelihoods.
1:19Evan Simon has been investigating data
1:22centers around the us.
1:23He's already found
1:24that some AI data centers are brazenly defying environmental
1:28laws and regulators are doing little to stop it.
1:33- There's really a transparency issue
1:34around the AI industry right now.
1:36It feels like a really important time for us
1:38to really pay close attention to these things.
1:40- We are teaming up today to take you up above
1:43for a different perspective on this science story.
1:46Using a drone fitted with a thermal camera
1:49to investigate what's really happening at one
1:52of the world's largest data centers
1:55and how it's impacting the people who live in its backyard.
1:59- There are a lot of people that have not seen what we hope
2:02to show through the drone footage,
2:04especially the thermal drone footage.
2:06- Is this even legal?
2:13- All right, so this looks like any other drone.
2:17- Regardless of how you feel about AI itself
2:20or the way that it's being rolled out,
2:22one thing is inescapable.
2:25Despite tech companies making promises about renewable
2:28energy and sustainable technology, much
2:30of this massive AI expansion is still being powered
2:34by fossil fuels.
2:36Your AI query likely pings a data center like this full
2:41of millions of power hungry processing chips,
2:44running the chatbots agents
2:46and other tools that millions of people interact
2:49with every day.
2:50But to power those operations data centers
2:53around the country are increasingly relying on their own
2:56custom built gas power plants.
2:58The Stargate Data Center already has 62 diesel generators
3:03and 10 gas powered turbines on site with plans
3:07for 41 more.
3:09This will make it one of the largest fossil fuel power
3:12plants of any kind in Texas,
3:14and it's just to power this data center.
3:18Why is it so important
3:19that we keep an eye on this growing industry?
3:22- There's a lot of secrecy surrounding these sites.
3:24Public officials are signing NDAs.
3:26Companies are using propriety information shields and state
3:30and federal regulators don't
3:31seem like they're able to keep up.
3:32So we feel like it's really important at our newsroom
3:34to monitor what seems like a fairly lightly regulated
3:37industry, especially as it grows at such a rapid clip.
3:40- New facilities like this are being built largely
3:43to meet demand for generative AI tools like chatbots.
3:47OpenAI reported that global use
3:49of chatbots more than doubled in the last year.
3:52Going from 400 to 900 million users.
3:56- Growth is the number one concern
3:58for all of these data centers.
4:00They're trying to beat everybody else in being the first
4:03to really harness the profitability around ai,
4:06and for them, that really means essentially getting
4:09as much power as fast as they can.
4:11- Big tech companies are projected
4:12to spend more than $800 billion on the infrastructure
4:16behind artificial intelligence in 2026.
4:20And in 2027, that number will exceed a trillion dollars.
4:24That's on par with the entire US defense budget.
4:30Stargate is one of the most ambitious
4:32and powerful AI data centers ever built.
4:36The proposed onsite power plant could deliver more than 1.7
4:40gigawatts of power.
4:42That's enough energy to power more than 1 million homes
4:45for a year, and the plant will emit more than 7.8 million
4:50tons of greenhouse gases each year.
4:52That's the annual emissions of about 2 million cars.
4:56Satellite imagery reveals the enormous impact that has made
4:59to the landscape from 2024 to today,
5:03and the construction still hasn't been completed.
5:06We're driving around and we still haven't gotten a clear
5:09look at this place,
5:10and I think that's why the aerial view is gonna be key
5:13to figuring out what's going on here.
5:15- Our thermal drone is just one part
5:16of our reporting process.
5:17We still heavily rely on more traditional forms
5:20of investigative journalism, mainly public records requests,
5:22so we often use a combination of public records requests
5:25and innovative things like thermal imaging
5:27to really get a sense of what exactly is
5:29happening at these facilities
5:31- From the outside.
5:32This just looks like a gigantic building.
5:35What's happening inside of there
5:37that is like causing all this demand,
5:39causing this race for energy.
5:40- The computer processors
5:42or GPUs that are inside
5:43of these massive data centers require
5:46enormous amounts of energy.
5:48It's really hard to get a sense of actually
5:49how much energy is pulsing through these facilities,
5:52and so that's why we've started to incorporate a thermal
5:54drone to really try to get a sense of
5:56what is actually happening at these facilities.
5:58- Omaira Garcia or OG, as she likes to be called,
6:02lives right next door to Stargate,
6:04we launched the thermal drone from her property
6:07to get a look at what's really going on.
6:11- My husband and I both served in the military.
6:15What initially brought us
6:16to Abilene was his military service.
6:19After being here for a couple years,
6:20we really just kind of fell in love with it.
6:23It took us a year to find this property, just the views,
6:27the horizon, the sunrise, the sunset.
6:30It was just our own little piece
6:33of happiness.
6:36Come on, come on.
6:39In 2025, Stargate started
6:42to break ground on the property
6:45and all of a sudden life changed.
6:46We had no idea what they were building there,
6:49and then we heard that the reason we couldn't find out
6:53what they were building there was
6:54because people were asked
6:55to sign a non-disclosure agreement,
6:57and when they get there,
6:58there's just dust flying everywhere.
7:01We started taking a poll to see how often we have
7:04to change our filters, and it's every two weeks
7:07'cause they're completely filthy and full.
7:16- All right, so this is what it looks like in a standard
7:18drone shot, but watch what happens when I switch to thermal.
7:21- Wow. - It's important to note
7:23that it's not showing us the specific pollutants
7:25or specific gases that are emitted by these turbines,
7:28but just by showing us that heat signature, we know
7:30that pollution is happening at this site.
7:33- Gas turbines like these are essentially jet engines
7:36that generate electricity,
7:38and they emit a lot of greenhouse gases
7:40and harmful air pollution, which is linked to asthma,
7:43heart attacks, and even premature death.
7:46The day we filmed Stargate was only operating one
7:49of the 10 turbines that it has on site,
7:52but it eventually plans to have more than 50
7:55of these turbines powering its operations here, something
7:59OG was unaware of until we informed her.
8:02- I didn't know about their expansion plan
8:05and what that looks like for our home.
8:07If we're already dealing with the noise difficulty
8:11with only 10 turbines that they have right now,
8:13I can only imagine how much more difficult it's gonna be.
8:16Like I feel trapped.
8:18You know, we invest in our home, we serve our country,
8:23and we weren't even included in this process.
8:26We weren't given any time to understand
8:30what this impact was gonna be on us.
8:35The long term ramifications, we weren't given time to
8:41try to leave.
8:46So how do I feel
8:52upset?
8:55- It is absolutely shocking to see
8:57that invisible pollution made visible like this.
9:02This is incredible. So
9:03how can you tell if a facility like this is
9:05following the law?
9:06- Well, we're gonna take these images to a series of experts
9:09to really make sure that we understand
9:10what we're looking at, but you'd be surprised
9:12what I've found in the past.
9:13- Evan's investigation previously took him to South Haven,
9:16Mississippi, another community being impacted
9:19by a giant new hyperscale AI data center,
9:23xAI's Colossus, which helps power their chatbot Grok
9:28- In this drive for speed, this race for AI dominance,
9:31Elon Musk and xAI parked these massive turbines on tractor
9:36trailers to power their operations.
9:38They then argued that these were temporary power sources and
9:41therefore did not require state
9:42or federal permits to operate.
9:44That is really out of step with longstanding EPA policy
9:47that turbines like these,
9:48which are major pollution sources, require permits.
9:51Regardless of whether or not they're
9:52considered temporary or not.
9:54- We genuinely just don't understand
9:56how they're still allowed to run their turbines right now.
9:58There's people in the very neighborhood
10:00that we're standing next to right now
10:02that probably still have no idea, just
10:05because it's been kept so quiet,
10:07- Even people that are living really, really close to it,
10:09never really got a good sense of
10:11what was there in their backyard.
10:12- I did not discover that the power plant was going
10:15to be built until it was actually here.
10:17There wasn't a public meeting or anything like that.
10:20It was just kind of here all of a sudden,
10:23which was a big shock and a big surprise.
10:26- I was really fortunate to speak with a resident
10:29who has a home directly across the street from the South
10:31Haven gas plant, a woman named Crystal Polk,
10:33and she agreed to let me fly the drone from her property.
10:36As soon as the drone rose above the tree line, I could see
10:39that a number of these turbines were emitting very,
10:41very strong heat signatures, at least a dozen,
10:44and it seemed to me very obviously,
10:46that these turbines were operating,
10:49- Having turbines running so close to my home
10:51that are unpermitted is a very deep concern.
10:54I'm severe asthmatic as well as some of my children.
10:57I am very concerned about what is gonna be in the air
11:00and how it's gonna affect my health.
11:02We were going to retire here,
11:04but now we have emptied the house of all furniture
11:07because of the pollution.
11:09I think I shed a few tears
11:12because it's been my forever is where I grew up.
11:17- The bring your own power plant strategy seen at Colossus
11:20was once an outlier in the industry,
11:22but this strategy has gone mainstream
11:24and nowhere is that more apparent than in Texas.
11:27There are roughly 300 data centers here in Texas
11:31with at least a hundred currently under construction
11:34with an additional a hundred more planned,
11:38and the vast majority are powered by fossil fuels.
11:41Texas has around 80 gigawatts
11:44of natural gas power under construction,
11:47and roughly half
11:48of those plants will provide power exclusively
11:51to data centers without even connecting
11:54to Texas's electrical grid.
11:56Some of these approved sites are massive.
11:58One approved site in West Texas is slated
12:01to generate nearly eight gigawatts alone,
12:04making it the largest proposed data center in the country.
12:07That eight gigawatts is roughly enough
12:09to provide electricity
12:10for more than half the homes in the state,
12:13but that power will be off the grid solely
12:16for one data center.
12:18While this so-called
12:19behind the meter strategy can reduce strain on the grid
12:23and might keep electricity prices down for consumers,
12:27it also means more power plants emitting more harmful
12:30pollutants across the state.
12:32The companies building these data centers almost always
12:35promise that they'll use renewables
12:37or nuclear when they announce their projects,
12:40but when you look at the data, most
12:42of what's actually being built right now is powered entirely
12:46by natural gas.
12:48It will be at least 2028
12:49before renewables power AI at any real scale
12:53and new nuclear plants are a decade or more away.
12:57These fossil fuel powered facilities generate fine
12:59particulate matter widely understood
13:02to be detrimental to human health.
13:04One study estimated the healthcare related costs
13:07for people living near a similar Virginia power plant could
13:10be up to a hundred million dollars a year,
13:13and that's not the only risk.
13:15Researchers have shown that data centers create their own
13:17heat islands raising temperatures nearby by as much
13:20as two degrees Celsius through their heavy use
13:23of industrial equipment and energy consumption.
13:27AI chips and models are becoming more efficient when it
13:30comes to power and heat,
13:32but those efficiency gains are being exceeded
13:34by overall growth in AI usage in part as a result of
13:39that efficiency gain.
13:40This is a well-known phenomenon in technology innovation
13:44called the Jevons Paradox.
13:46It was first described in the 1860s.
13:48The English were concerned about running out of coal,
13:51their main source of power.
13:52Some argued that as coal burning plants became more
13:55efficient, less coal would be used.
13:58But economist Williams Stanley Jevons showed
14:01that increasing efficiency wouldn't save coal
14:04because cheaper, more efficient power would lead
14:07to an overall rise in demand for coal.
14:10Hyperscalers like Stargate may be getting more efficient,
14:14but if the Jevons paradox holds up,
14:16those gains will be erased by the increased demand for AI.
14:21Electricity isn't the only concern.
14:24The tens of thousands of high-powered chips
14:26inside a data center like this generate enormous amounts
14:30of heat requiring massive cooling systems
14:33to prevent failures.
14:34Stargate uses a closed loop cooling system
14:37that circulates water to pull heat away from the machines.
14:41While these systems usually only need
14:43to be filled once they do require more electricity to run.
14:48By some estimates, the rise in data centers in the state
14:51of Texas could increase water usage a whopping 9%
14:55by the year 2030.
15:06We took the footage we gathered to OG to show her
15:09what was taking place just next door to her home.
15:13- From my experience, I can tell
15:14that this plume right here is a very large heat
15:18signature. That's just one. That's just one.
15:21- It's crazy to see it from this perspective.
15:24It just shows how close
15:27- That means that they're running it full tilt essentially.
15:31You can't really get a sense
15:33of it without the thermal, you know?
15:34I mean, this is what it, it looks like to you and,
15:36and I know that's alarming in and of itself,
15:39but once you see the thermal,
15:41it is really a completely different matter.
15:44- Yeah, it looks, it looks off.
15:46It just looks like a structure,
15:47- Right?
15:48Exactly. I mean, that thing is just cooking.
15:51Yeah, and then there's a plan for 51
15:54of these in total at this site. They wouldn't
15:57- Put these here unless they plan to use them.
15:59- That's the idea. I mean there,
16:00there is literally a shortage
16:01of these turbine turbines nationwide.
16:04Companies are scrambling to stockpile them,
16:06make orders years in advance now to try to get
16:08as many of these as possible.
16:10You don't get these kinds of turbines
16:11unless you plan on turning them on.
16:21This is what it looks like in her front yard,
16:23and to hear her tell it, she had no idea
16:26that this was coming until it was essentially there.
16:29- That's, that's almost unconscionable. You know,
16:33- Kathryn Guerra spent years at the Texas Commission on
16:36Environmental Quality
16:37and is now at Public Citizen,
16:39a consumer rights advocacy group.
16:41So she's uniquely qualified to help us make sense of
16:44what we saw in Abilene
16:45and to figure out if Stargate is operating under the
16:48appropriate rules.
16:49- These initial permits came in at a lower level
16:52authorization called a permit by rule.
16:54With permit by rules. They are activity specific.
16:57So for example, an autobody shop would get a permit
17:00by rule authorization,
17:01or a dry cleaner would get a permit by rule authorization.
17:04When a data center pursues these lower level
17:08pre-construction authorizations,
17:09that grants them the authority to begin operating
17:12with no public notice requirement and no public input
17:16or participation, that feels pretty intentional.
17:19- So that kind of approval process happening
17:22so quickly seems possibly appropriate.
17:23If we're talking about an autobody shop
17:25or a laundromat, does it make sense
17:27for a large scale power plant
17:29that could theoretically power
17:30hundreds of thousands of homes?
17:31- Not to me it doesn't. - As it seeks to expand, Stargate,
17:35developers have since applied for other permits that seem
17:38to better suit the sprawling data center.
17:41Critics say this small, first,
17:43big later strategy enables data centers
17:46to get a foothold in a community without public
17:49and to make it harder
17:51or even impossible
17:52to stop them once construction has already begun.
17:56But even with the correct permits,
17:58Kathryn seriously doubts
17:59that the Texas environmental regulatory bodies have the
18:02capacity to hold polluters accountable.
18:05- The data center industry is expanding at a rate that is
18:09beyond the capability
18:10of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
18:13to sufficiently regulate.
18:14We have seen enforcement cases this past year
18:17that were 10 years old,
18:20- So it seems like what we saw at Stargate is allowable
18:23operations under the permits that they currently have.
18:26Does that make it okay, still, in your opinion?
18:28- These air pollutants,
18:31they don't go up into the atmosphere and go away.
18:34We know that these facilities are emitting volatile organic
18:38compounds, nos and particulate matter,
18:42and the health impacts are respiratory, cardiovascular,
18:47you know, people with asthma or children
18:49and elderly people in these communities.
18:52Those are the folks that are gonna be suffering from this
18:53air pollution and massive amounts of air pollution.
18:58- Stargate was still under construction when we visited,
19:01so most of the turbines were sitting idle,
19:03but one day soon, this site could host a city's worth
19:07of polluting exhaust stacks.
19:09At this point, this campus may be adhering to the permits
19:12that they've been issued,
19:13but there are huge questions as
19:15to whether those permits are appropriate
19:17for a facility like this,
19:18and whether private energy grids like this are sufficiently
19:21regulated for safety and pollution.
19:24There's so much that is unseen in these operations.
19:29Why are journalists like you doing this observation
19:32instead of regulators?
19:34- Well, right now what we're seeing at the administration is
19:37a lot of pro AI policies coinciding with the gutting
19:40of various environmental agencies and enforcement agencies.
19:43So it's really unsure if we weren't doing this kind
19:45of work, if anybody else would be.
19:46- Some of these companies have made promises
19:48that these very same AI technologies could help us
19:51solve climate change.
19:53What is your take on that?
19:55- You hear that a lot from folks like Sam Altman himself
19:57who said that, you know, AI can fix climate change
20:00and can cure diseases and all these things,
20:02and while there may be enormous potential for that kind
20:04of thing, the experts that I've been talking to say that
20:06that just isn't happening at scale right now.
20:08The primary use of these data centers is to power chat bots,
20:12and that's what they're being used for.
20:15- I can't even begin to understand what that's what kind
20:19of impact that's gonna have on me
20:21and my health in the future.
20:23I'm concerned with that.
20:24When you invest in a home
20:26and you recognize you're doing all the right things to try
20:28to just enjoy your life
20:33and you feel like your home is being infiltrated on,
20:39it's kind of hard to find motivation.
20:46Yeah, so I don't know what the future looks like.
20:53- We've been promised a future
20:55where artificial intelligence can help us solve some
20:57of our biggest problems, curing diseases, cleaning the air,
21:02powering a better future.
21:04But right now in the present, the machines that are building
21:08that future are being powered by some
21:10of the dirtiest possible imaginable power sources.
21:13They're being built in people's backyards,
21:14drawing down our water supply, affecting the lives
21:18of people who live nearby.
21:20But what if we could build
21:22that promised future without breaking the present?

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