AI data centers got the "Weekend Update" care on "Saturday Night Live" this week.
Comedian James Austin Johnson portrayed "Shark Tank" capitalist Kevin O'Leary on the diagram wit show, during which he addressed the disagreement complete the genuine O'Leary's projected data center in Utah, known as the Stratos Project.
"It's extremely simple. All I desire is to buy up 40,000 acres of God's untouched splendor and substitute it alongside a extremely noisy device that steals your job," Johnson's O'Leary said. "Is it going to obtain up precious water? Absolutely. Is it going to provision a necessary service? Who's to say? But on the flip side, it's going to create me a enormous amount of money, and I think that's great."
The "SNL" type of O'Leary stated he understood that several Americans were concerned concerning data centers near their homes. (An genuine May Gallup study established that complete fractional of American surveyors opposed constructing AI data centers in their local area.)
"These things are awful and shouldn't be anywhere. That's why I'm construction one in Utah," he said.
Data centers are a contentious matter in the United States.
Leading tech companies depend on AI data centers to power their systems and products. Supporters say they'll create new jobs, bolster the economy, and assistance the US defeat China in the competition to authority the earth AI market.
Residents in the places anywhere they are being built, however, are frequently much small enthusiastic concerning them.
The Utah project, backed by O'Leary Digital, has drawn criticism from many local residents complete concerns that the data center could strain local resources and worsen the environment. Some residents are additionally disturb complete what they regard a deficiency of transparency from O'Leary and local leaders. Critics of the Stratos Project have staged protests, created petitions, and taken lawful act to halt its construction.
O'Leary scaled back the data center's size from concerning 40,000 to fair complete 20,000 acres following community pushback. He has stated he remains undeterred, though.
"There are bumps in the road. There's litigation. There's misinformation. There's propaganda. You name it. But if you cognize what you're doing is right, you create it, you get there," O'Leary told Business Insider in June. "Persevere."
During a May discussion on Fox News, O'Leary stated said several critics of the project have ties to the Chinese Communist Party, a assertion he afterward walked back. A Utah assistance collection that has publically opposed the project submitted a defamation lawsuit against Fox News and O'Leary in July.
On "Saturday Night Live," Johnson's O'Leary acknowledged the incident.
"I made the gently inflammatory assertion that all sole individual in Utah who opposes me is a paid communist excellent delegate from China. Was I wrong? Perhaps. But fair since they're not, doesn't average they aren't," he said.
He added, "I'm going to create the forthcoming go away. And we're doing fair that in Utah."
