alt Hacker NewsWhy do data centers need to be taxed separately?
Why does the local community need their take from that economic activity? What are they even providing? Are they providing land, electricity, and hardware for free to the data center?
Replies
fra • today at 4:52 PM
For two reasons: 1. They create externalities 2. They generate an economic flux that can be taxed
jbm • today at 4:58 PM
If human activity is taxed, AI activity will be taxed. It's just inevitable. It will be taxed at multiple levels until we figure out the right level to do so. Some of it will be detrimental to AI development but that's normal - in Canada we had a hidden manufacturing sales tax until the 80s which made exports more expensive.
A technology that puts X% of people out of work is going to be taxed.
The xAI one is emitting so much NOx pollution that it gave entire towns asthma for the rest of their lives and nobody is compensating them for it. People in Georgia are being threatened with no electricity next year because it's all going to data centers.