Nvidia exec touts ‘significant’ data center benefits

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Josh Parker has a tough job. As the artificial intelligence boom is greeted by a skeptical America, Nvidia’s head of sustainability wants to educate policymakers and the public about the positive impacts that the technology — and especially data centers — can have on communities.

“I don’t think it’s irrational for people to have anxiety about the future, because AI is so transformative, and we’re entering an era of unknowns and transformation,” Parker told Semafor.

He contended, however, that data centers’ adverse impacts, including higher electricity costs, are smaller than people think and “the benefits are very, very significant.” Although the net upside “works out very positively, we just have a big mountain to climb in terms of helping people understand that,” he said.

Parker touted tax benefits offered by some states to encourage data center construction and jobs created by the projects. He argued that data centers “strongly support energy affordability” by incentivizing grid upgrades, plus technologies that make them “assets to the grid.”

Nvidia, in partnership with other companies, is piloting technologies that allow data centers to adjust their power usage during periods of peak demand. The setup “increases the utilization of the energy infrastructure and ultimately leads to better efficiencies and should support energy affordability,” Parker explained.

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The challenge, Parker…