A House subcommittee might advance legislation Wednesday forcing tech companies to pay for the electricity their AI data centers consume. Groundbreaking stuff. Next they'll require restaurants to pay for water.
The bill targets companies running massive data centers that train ChatGPT to write your cover letters and generate images of dogs wearing sunglasses. These facilities pull enough power to light up small cities. Someone noticed the electric bill.
Congress looked at AI companies burning through gigawatts like it's their job—because it is their job—and thought maybe they should chip in. Revolutionary thinking from the same people who needed three decades to figure out the internet wasn't a fad.
Tech companies have been operating under the apparently controversial assumption that energy costs are just part of doing business. They plug in their servers. The servers run. The power company sends a bill. They pay it. Now Congress wants to make this arrangement more official by passing a law about it.
The legislation specifically addresses AI data centers, as if the electrons know the difference between training a language model and hosting your aunt's Facebook photos. Power is power. A kilowatt-hour doesn't care about your neural network architecture.
Retail traders heard about this bill and immediately started buying shares in companies that make extension cords. They're convinced this is the next infrastructure play. It's electricity, they said. Can't go tits up.
The real innovation here is Congress noticing that AI uses electricity at all. Give them six more months and they'll discover data centers also require cooling systems. Another bill will follow. Then they'll learn about fiber optic cables and lose their f*cking minds.
Tech companies already pay for power, but apparently not enough for Congress to feel involved. The solution is legislation confirming that yes, when you use electricity, you pay for electricity. Inspiring work from our representatives.
Photo by Darren Halstead on Unsplash
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