The „urgent“ regulatory amendment from the Energy Department would benefit AI companies.
Data centers are being built with unprecedented gusto all over the U.S. The reason for this is fairly well known: the AI business requires gargantuan amounts of electricity and computing power. Every time you use an app like DALL-E to, say, make one of those dumb AI-generated images of Mickey Mouse committing the 9/11 terrorist attacks, you’re apparently using as much energy as it takes to charge an iPhone. Now picture how much electricity is being used if millions of Americans do it at the same time.
The Trump administration has made it known that it’s a friend to the AI industry (it recently launched the AI infrastructure initiative Stargate) and so, it makes perfect sense that its Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, has decided to cut the red tape when it comes to hooking data centers up to the electrical grid.
In a statement published Friday, the Energy Department announced its plan to amend current rules to allow organizations that consume a lot of electricity to connect to the grid much faster: “U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) today to initiate rulemaking procedures with a proposed rule to rapidly accelerate the interconnection of large loads, including data centers, positioning the United States to lead in AI innovation and in the revitalization of domestic manufacturing.
