OpenAI Promises Greater Transparency, Community Engagement on Data Centers

AI developer OpenAI has changed course on its approach to siting and building data centers, now pledging it will publish data on water and power use, and work more openly with local communities, by mostly ceasing its policy of forcing public officials to sign the nondisclosure agreements that have angered local communities, and prompted a nationwide pushback.

According to The New York Times, OpenAI announced on November 5 a National Community Compact that will govern going forward how it deals with the communities where it builds its giant data centers, which it now calls “compute campuses.” In perhaps unintentionally frank wording that may or may not repair the damage to its public reputation, the company titles its new approach “Building With Communities, Not Just In Them.”

According to CleanView.com, the U.S. currently has 1,419 data centers operating, and 567 under construction.

Read More: Data Center Boom Faces Pushback from Local Communities

Under OpenAI’s Compact, from now on, each campus that the company owns and operates will have its own local agreement, and the company will provide an annual public report. OpenAI also pledges to pay the full cost of the electricity it uses, and the grid upgrades needed to serve it, posting financial guarantees so that local households and businesses are not left paying for grid upgrades if a project is canceled. It will also stop requiring local officials to sign the deeply controversial nondisclosure agreements, except for narrow security and trade-secret exceptions. As a sign of goodwill, the company said it had voided such an agreement in Effingham County, Georgia, in July.

The actual impact of the reversal may be limited, as the pledges cover only sites that OpenAI owns, which are relatively few. Data centers are mostly being built via hugely funded partnerships between massive companies – a typical example being Stargate, a $500 billion endeavor involving OpenAI, cloud computing services provider Oracle, and investment company SoftBank. Elon Musk’s company, xAI, is also a major player. No other data center company has so far directly commented on whether it will follow OpenAI’s suit.

OpenAI also published a policy blueprint, calling for lawmakers to mandate similar rules across the industry and, among other things, asking Congress to restore clean-electricity tax credits. Many newly elected Democrats have pledged to put a moratorium on data center construction, and already lawmakers in 16 states are considering banning their development.

Watch: The Impact of Data Center Construction on Local Communities

Although OpenAI said the turn reflected commitments it began making in January, the timing is notable, coming on the heels of the midterm elections, where voters dramatically rebuked a Republican party and president that have been dismissive of voters’ complaints about the sudden, ungoverned spread of data centers. 

These include hiked electricity costs, diminished water quality, noise pollution and overall repugnance of the campuses, which frequently occupy more than one million square feet, and have tended to spring up on the edge of small towns, in order to take advantage of local water and electricity infrastructure, cheap land, and often volunteer local officials unused to dealing with multi-billion-dollar corporations that offer substantial boosts to tax revenues.