This commentary is by Paula Marks, of Guilford. She is a retired American Studies professor.
AI has not crept but crashed into our lives, and it has its benefits. Yet there are three big reasons we should be wary of how it is being developed, and how quickly.
First, while AI can provide a good summary or outline on a topic or a welcome reassuring presence, it also can present fiction as fact or as garbled and simply weird when it takes on a topic or a relationship. For example, those relying on ChatGPT for medical advice run into its contradictions and misinformation, and some of those who use it for companionship have found it can take a dark turn.
Second, President Trump recently signed an executive order to empower the federal government to challenge any state-generated AI laws it deems “onerous or excessive.” This should raise red flags, especially since the tech bros, or “broligarchs,” who engage in AI initiatives are aligned with Trump’s agenda.
Third, AI has turbo-charged the proliferation of data centers (more than 600 in Virginia alone and growing, according to a July 2025 report). These massive centers suck up water and electricity in vast amounts, often with unproven water-savings schemes, in drought-prone areas and without real oversight. Many communities have been forced to accept these intrusive, noisy, polluting, resource-draining behemoths.
One might ask whether data centers at least bring economic opportunities to these residents in terms of jobs. Let’s let AI itself respond: “AI data centers employ surprisingly few people directly for operations, typically dozens to a few hundred per large facility.”
Further, the billions of dollars tech bros, corporations and their investors are pouring into the centers are potentially destabilizing our already damaged U.S. economy, creating a worrying financial bubble. Meanwhile, growing dependence on AI keeps stretching water and electricity resources in communities and in the U.S. as a whole.
What does this all mean for Vermonters? Our state government has tried to anticipate AI proliferation and was the first in the nation to create a division focused on AI ethics and implementation. But the changes and challenges are coming quickly. Here’s what you can do now:
- Encourage Gov. Scott to resist Trump’s executive order trying to prohibit the state from regulating AI. Call him at (802) 828-3333.
- Encourage Gov. Scott and the state legislature to ban or at least set a moratorium on the development of any AI centers in Vermont. (There are already legislators aware of and open to these measures, and Bernie Sanders is speaking out for such a moratorium at the national level.)
- Be aware that we must protect Vermont water as this essential resource sadly becomes a commodity elsewhere in the U.S. Louisiana recently wisely backed out of selling water to Texas, whose leaders have allowed data centers into long-term-drought areas, have not protected the water sources that did exist and have failed to address a looming crisis until it is upon them.
