After midterm rebuke, OpenAI pledges to give data center towns more say
The Boston Globe · Emmy Martin ·
Under what it called a National Community Compact, each future campus that OpenAI owns and operates will have its own local agreement and an annual public report.
SAN FRANCISCO — Two days after voters widely supported ballot measures meant to limit the artificial intelligence construction boom, OpenAI said Thursday that it would change how it dealt with the communities where it built its giant data centers, which it now calls “compute campuses.”
Under what it called a National Community Compact, each future campus that OpenAI owns and operates will have its own local agreement and an annual public report. The company pledged in a statement to pay the full cost of the electricity it uses and the grid upgrades needed to serve it. It will also post financial guarantees so that local households and businesses are not left paying for grid upgrades if a project is canceled.
OpenAI said it would publish water and power use for each site and stop requiring public officials to sign nondisclosure agreements, except for narrow security and trade-secret exceptions. The company said it voided such an agreement in Effingham County, Georgia, in July.
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