US President Joe Biden issued an executive order as the White House seeks to increase domestic construction of AI infrastructure and boost the national security risk involved in the technology.
The executive order gives more power to the Department of Defense and Department of Energy to lease federal land for gigawatt-sized AI data centers.
The White House vouches for AI’s transformative abilities
The White House in a statement vouched for the technology as a game changer across sectors.
“AI is poised to have large effects across our economy, including in health care, transportation, education and beyond, and it is too important to be offshore.”
White House.
In order to match their capacity needs and prevent increases in electricity costs, the order also issued guidelines for AI developers using the sites to not only build, operate, and maintain the leased centers at full cost, but also to deliver clean energy resources.
According to the White House, the order directs certain agencies to make federal sites available for AI data centers and new clean power facilities, facilitate this infrastructure’s interconnection to the electric grid, fulfill permitting obligations expeditiously, and advance transmission development around federal sites.
“DOD and DOE will select sites where the private sector can build AI data centers and clean power facilities based on those sites’ accessibility to high capacity transmission infrastructure.”
The sites should minimize adverse effects on communities, the natural environment, and commercial resources, according to the executive order.
The White House said agencies will prioritize and dedicate staff toward permitting this infrastructure in a timely manner, and the Department of Defense will immediately undertake environmental analyses that will improve the speed and accuracy of future site-specific reviews.
“Agencies will identify further opportunities to support expeditious permitting at these sites, such as by applying or establishing categorical exclusions, the fastest form of review under the National Environmental Policy Act, for infrastructure that does not significantly affect the environment,” said President Biden.
Additionally, the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and the Department of Commerce will support producers of transformers and other grid components critical for AI infrastructure including through appropriate steps to establish equipment reserves, as federal agencies explore loan guarantee programs to advance AI infrastructure development.
The President indicated that the selected developers to work on the DOD and DOE sites will be required, consistent with applicable law, to pay all costs of building and operating AI infrastructure so that this development does not raise electricity prices for consumers.
Agencies will also complete a study on the effects of all AI data centers on electricity prices and the Department of Energy will provide technical assistance to state public utility commissions regarding electricity tariff designs that can support connecting new large customers with clean energy.
Firms working on these projects to abide by US regulations
According to the executive order, companies leasing the federal lands must pay workers’ prevailing wages and buy a sizeable share of semiconductors manufactured locally.
A report by the International Energy Agency predicts that Global electricity consumption from data centers, AI, and the cryptocurrency sector will double by 2026.
Large language models of AI such as ChatGPT pioneered by OpenAI rely on data centers to train on vast amounts of data and generate more sophisticated, human-like answers to user prompts.
AI tech firms have been criticized for the heavy use of water to cool down their power-intensive structures. Critics say it is unsustainable in the long run and have pointed out that it is harmful to the environment.
Tech firms have responded by exploring other forms of power such as nuclear, in order to maintain their data centers. In recent months, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have each announced nuclear power deals, with Microsoft signing a deal with Constellation to bring the Three Mile Island reactor back online.
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