AI start-up Anthropic said it would institute measures to help reduce the impact of its data centres on residential utility bills, amid a growing backlash against tech companies’ aggressive push to build out massive processing facilities.
The start-up said it would work with utility companies to “estimate and cover” consumer electricity price increases in places where it is not able to sufficiently generate new power, and would pay for the infrastructure upgrades required to connect its data centres to the grid.
Investment
“The costs of powering our models should fall on Anthropic, not everyday Americans,” said Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei.
Anthropic also said it would invest in new power generation capacity and systems to limit data centres’ power usage during peak demand periods.
OpenAI and Microsoft have recently announced similar initiatives, amid a pushback by residents that has seen some data centre projects delayed or cancelled.
The tech companies are also faced with potential measures that would make their payouts a legal requirement, rather than a voluntary programme, including a state bill introduced in New York last week and a bill introduced in the US Senate in January.
Soaring prices
Some studies have found that utility prices have skyrocketed for consumers in areas where there are many data centres, although the industry disputes these figures.
Tech companies are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build out facilities to drive power-hungry AI applications, as they rush to gain an edge over competitors.
