Is our AI obsession good for small town America?

Millions of people are asking tools like ChatGPT questions every day. But your questions don’t just fly up into the ether. They go to a real place.

AI has a backend, and it looks like massive data centers sprawling across farmland in places like central Washington.

Data centers provide the essential infrastructure needed to run AI apps and everything else we do on the internet. And tech companies say they bring economic prosperity to communities that desperately need it. But those benefits come at a cost.

On this week's episode, we travel to a place where the data center boom is well underway to find out how the AI boom is reshaping small towns.

Support the show: https://kuow.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.