Artificial intelligence is impacting the economy on a scale that may surpass changes from the internet revolution. Science and technology, energy, transportation, health care, industry, and business are being transformed at an accelerating pace. President Trump has emerged as an AI champion, but opposition is rising from progressive and environmental groups.
The term “artificial intelligence” was coined by John McCarthy at Dartmouth University in 1955. But it took 67 years until the introduction of ChatGPT in November of 2022 for AI systems to master the complexities of human language.
The artificial intelligence revolution relies on three core components: vast computer processing power, huge databases of information, and innovative AI algorithms. Since the ENIAC computer at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946, the processing speed of computers has increased almost one trillion times. The internet revolution of the late 20th century provided an ocean of digital information, allowing today’s AI systems to access billions of data files. And innovations such as neural networks, large learning models, and the parallel processing of “graphics processing unit” integrated circuits enable machines to mimic human intelligence.
Today’s rapidly improving AI systems are remarkable. They can translate between dozens of languages, assemble prose and poetry, generate audio, images, and videos, and answer factual questions. AI language models score better than humans on the bar exam and the US medical licensing exam. AI systems continue to improve at a rapid pace and have begun to change every business and industry.
AI is being used to identify the molecular structure of future drugs, map human DNA, develop new materials for batteries, enable self-driving vehicles, provide intelligence for robots, and guide autonomous weapons. AI-based software aides are being deployed in business, legal, science, engineering, technology, and health industries. Experts project a coming productivity boom in these professions.
But AI systems will also likely eliminate jobs in food service, customer service, office support, and production work. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, about 12 million US workers will need to make occupational transitions by 2030 due to AI automation.
Artificial intelligence supercomputers and servers reside in data centers, some which are gigantic. AI systems use enormous amounts of electricity and have cooling systems that can use excessive amounts of water. Meta’s Hyperion data center under construction in northeast Louisiana will cover 3.5 square miles or more than 1,700 football fields. When completed in 2030, it will consume double the electricity of the city of New Orleans. Entergy Louisiana is building three large gas-fired power plants on site at a cost of more than $3 billion.
The data center build-out is astonishing. Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle have announced capital spending plans totaling $650 billion this year, up 70% from 2025 and up 650% from 2020. This single-year spending total is larger than the individual Gross Domestic Product of 168 nations.
President Trump has emerged as a champion of AI, stating that America will be “the world’s number one superpower in artificial intelligence.” To win the AI battle with China, the Trump administration is urging big data center companies to build their own gas-fired power plants. Trump is also promoting a nuclear resurgence, issuing executive orders last May that call for the US to quadruple nuclear capacity by 2050.
But progressives and environmental groups are lining up against AI and data centers. Last week Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Ocasio-Cortez introduced the “Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act,” seeking to halt data center construction. Last December, 230 environmental organizations also sent a letter to Congress calling for a data center construction halt. Senator Sanders says “The moratorium will give democracy a chance to catch up, and ensure that the benefits of technology work for all of us, not just the 1%.”
Opposing groups point to electricity usage, claiming that data centers are raising power bills for consumers. They say that data center water usage is “unsustainable.” They also raise concerns about job losses from AI automation. But their biggest fear may be that the huge buildout of data centers will cause dangerous climate change. Progressive leaders such as Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, admit that wind and solar cannot meet the always-on power requirements of data centers. More than 200 gas-fired power plants are now in planning or under construction across the US.
While promoting AI, President Trump is making efforts to contain costs and protect consumers from the impacts of the AI revolution. On March 4, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Open AI, and Oracle came to the White House and signed the “Rate Payer Protection Pledge,” agreeing to pay the increased cost of electricity production for data centers.
Trump recently introduced the “National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence.” The policy asks Congress to pass AI legislation to protect children and empower parents, safeguard consumers from rising power costs, protect intellectual property, establish a federal AI policy to preempt state laws, and other measures. The policy also asks Congress to provide “grants, tax incentives, and technical assistance programs” to small businesses and “to support wider deployment of AI tools across American industry.”
Softbank of Japan will invest $500 billion for a data center in Piketon, Ohio, with construction to begin this year. The data center build will be the largest construction project in the US. The facility will be powered by a new 9.2-gigawatt gas-fired power plant, to be the largest gas-fired plant in the US. The Softbank investment will be part of the $550 billion commitment made last year by Japan in the tariff deal with the US.
Artificial intelligence is transforming the US economy but faces a rising battle between the Trump administration and progressive environmental groups, sure to become a major issue in the mid-term elections.
This piece originally appeared at MasterResource.com and has been republished here with permission.
