(The Center Square) – A clash of future visions that seems to encapsulate both the fears and hopes of many Pennsylvanians found expression at the Capitol this week.
Organizers raising concerns around the furious pace of AI development brought a letter with thousands of signatures to the governor just as the AI “Strike Team 2.0” was launched in partnership with Team PA, an economic development non-profit for which he sits on the board.
The Better Path Coalition and No False Climate Solutions hosted a “job fair” at the Capitol Wednesday where “humans need not apply.” The group wanted to draw attention to the potential pitfalls of reliance on and outsourcing to artificial intelligence and robots in the workplace.
Both those in opposition to data center development and those who have celebrated it see the issue as an existential threat.
“Pennsylvania has a narrow window to cement its leadership in the New AI Economy,” said Joanna Doven, CEO of the AI Strike Team. “Strike Team 2.0 gives us the structure to grow what works, potentially scale it statewide, and move with the agility this moment demands. We cannot afford incremental thinking – we must act boldly.”
For AI advocates, everything is a matter of when, not if. As they see it, there is a race with China to achieve AI supremacy which will determine who holds the keys to the futures of industries including medicine, defense, and even agriculture. The power of AI, they believe, could be the very same power that solves the climate crisis through its enormous computational power.
It’s a debate where both sides have bipartisan support.
“At a time when our country is so divided, this issue is bringing people together across party lines, united in strong opposition to the devastating impacts these AI data centers would have on people and the environment,” said Ginny Marcille-Kerslake, Senior Organizer Food and Water Watch.
Meanwhile, Team Pennsylvania President and CEO Abby Smith said her organization “exists to help cross-sector leaders move faster on big, nonpartisan priorities for the commonwealth.”
The proliferation of AI is an issue that brought U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, President Donald Trump, and Gov. Josh Shapiro to the same event in July.
Advocates from the jobs fair asked for a pause, an opportunity to give the state legislature and local municipalities time to catch up and regulate the industry. With so many lawmakers seeking out ways to clear the path for AI and lucrative deals like Amazon’s more than $20 billion investment in the state, they’re up against tough odds.
Even if there was a state-level appetite for regulation, federal policy may preclude the possibility. On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order restricting states’ ability to regulate the technology. It establishes an arm of the Justice Department exclusively dedicated to challenging state laws conflicting with the federal AI policy set forth in Trump’s executive orders. It also threatens to restrict funding for uncooperative states.
Though the job fair was the visual centerpiece of organizers’ efforts in Harrisburg, the environment was the main concern raised by each speaker. In Pennsylvania, huge concerns about fracking and fossil fuel use come hand in hand with the energy-guzzling data centers.
On the board of the new Strike Force sits Toby Rice, President and CEO of EQT, a major natural gas producer in the state. The corporation claims it’s on track to achieve net-zero carbon emissions, though many people living in communities near fracking have reported adverse health effects and lowered quality of life.
“It’s time to pick science and facts over line items and false promises,” said Anneke van Rossum, Advocacy and Advancement Coordinator, Delaware Riverkeeper Network. “Data centers perpetuate the fossil fuel industry. They rob communities of necessary water resources. They emit harmful noise and air emissions with devastating health consequences, and data centers push us farther away from our climate goals, where every tenth of a degree increase in warming pushes us closer to irreversible disasters.”
Others say that the demand for energy posed by AI has pushed industry to advance forward new technologies in energy production. Renewed enthusiasm for nuclear energy in the form of small modular reactors has generated interest in the legislature. Meanwhile, many are hopeful that renewable energy sources could be brought onto the grid at a quickened pace, though federal policies have created setbacks.
