There's one issue where Republicans and Democrats are unified before the midterms, a new poll finds

On the way home from a recent trip, Eriech Tapia drove past a sea of dark industrial buildings lining an already jam-packed northern Virginia road: data centers.“It was interesting to see how many were going up,” said Tapia, a 30-year-old Republican from Arlington, Virginia, who works in higher education advocacy and policy. He said the data centers lend valuable computing power that can help keep the U.S. competitive with other nations, but he also worries about how much electricity they use.Like Tapia, Americans have grown more concerned about the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence over the last year, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.The survey data say about half, 53%, of Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about artificial intelligence's environmental impacts.

Democrats are driving much of the increase in environmental concern, but the poll also reveals broader worries about the local impact of data centers, which power AI and cloud computing.“We're undertaking a massive experiment in real time, and I don't think there'll be any putting the milk back in the bottle. Change is scary, and I think some of that is being reflected here,” said Michael Greenstone, who directs the University of Chicago institute that collaborated on the survey.Rising concern among Democrats about AI's environmental impactThere are thousands of data centers in the U.S. with construction planned for more.

Those include smaller, conventional centers that have been around for decades, as well as larger hyperscale ones that are being built to serve artificial intelligence’s added processing needs. Virginia and Texas have the most facilities currently in operation, and other top contenders include California, Ohio and New York.While 87% of existing data centers are in urban areas, most new data centers are planned for rural areas, according to a Pew Research Center analysis from earlier this year.“I think that decisions are being made for the company, not for the community that they're being built in,” said Nancy Antunes, a 60-year-old retired Democrat from Waltham, Massachusetts.A recent United Nations University report predicted that data centers' environmental footprint, which already rivals some of the world's … “It was interesting to see how many were going up,” said Tapia, a 30-year-old Republican from Arlington, Virginia, who works in higher education advocacy and policy.

Like Tapia, Americans have grown more concerned about the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence over the last year, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. The survey data say about half, 53%, of Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about artificial intelligence’s environmental impacts. “We’re undertaking a massive experiment in real time, and I don’t think there’ll be any putting the milk back in the bottle.

Rising concern among Democrats about AI’s environmental impact There are thousands of data centers in the U.S. While 87% of existing data centers are in urban areas, most new data centers are planned for rural areas, according to a Pew Research Center analysis from earlier this year. “I think that decisions are being made for the company, not for the community that they’re being built in,” said Nancy Antunes, a 60-year-old retired Democrat from Waltham, Massachusetts.

A recent United Nations University report predicted that data centers’ environmental footprint, which already rivals some of the…