During a Thursday interview on Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5's "The Jeff Poor Show," U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) again emphasized the importance of data centers despite nationwide public pushback.
Tuberville, who recently said as Alabama's next governor that data centers would be coming to the state, told host Jeff Poor that artificial intelligence (AI) was "the future" and suggested that anti-data center propaganda was coming from China.
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"We've been working with data centers for about two years," Tuberville outlined. "You know, there's 4,000 data centers already in the country. They've been here 20-25 years and growing, and AI is the future. And all data centers are about is storing information."
"And there's a lot of misconception out there because growing AI is going to grow our education, going to give our kids a better opportunity, and it's also going to continue to lead China. Now, the propaganda coming out on social media is coming from China, most of it, you know, just kind of pushing the narrative that it's dangerous and we don't need to do it. Well, who benefits from that? The Chinese benefit from it," he added.
Tuberville said he had visited data centers across the country and the water usage was a "misnomer" because the centers are able to reuse the water "like a carwash."
"You have a lot of these people talking about things that they really know nothing about," he added.
The presumptive Alabama governor echoed President Donald Trump's belief that data center projects were one way to spur economic growth in the state.
"The taxes that this brings in ... could be enormous," Tuberville emphasized.
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