Disputes surrounding the server facilities driving artificial intelligence are raging across the internet, on news and social media feeds that depend on these massive data hubs to reach the public.

The debate comes as public demand for AI applications reaches unprecedented levels. We’re using it to make tasks easier, ourselves more glamorous and svelte in photos, and our lives more organized. We’re also skeptical that it’s being used to dox adversaries, surveil perceived enemies and pursue aims that may be more nefarious than defensible.

Respondents to Patch’s informal survey on data centers didn’t reach a clear consensus about where data centers should be located. Most who weighed in on siting said they should be kept away from homes. Others said they should be located in rural areas — where, in fact, research suggests most development is occurring. Still others said the facilities shouldn’t gobble up farmland. Locating them on underused industrial sites that already have infrastructure made the most sense to some readers.

“Nobody outside of government and the people making money off them want them in their towns,” Chicago Patch reader Chris Bowman said. “This is all such a mess. One place they shouldn't go is outer space. But that's where this is headed.”

Bowman was referring to proposals before the Federal Communications Commission to put data centers in space.

SpaceX’s application for as many as 1 million orbital data-center satellites has been accepted for FCC review, and Reflect Orbital received an FCC license to launch one experimental mirror satellite for an orbital demonstration later this year. The approval covers only the prototype, not the company’s proposed constellation of tens of thousands of mirrors, according to Aerospace America. Two separate proposals from Blue Origin and Orbital Compute are also pending.

With that, Bowman captured a central tension in the political discourse ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms. Though local server facilities may not appear explicitly on every voter’s ballot, their presence looms over town halls, political speeches and community forums nationwide.

In addition to keeping data centers away from neighborhoods, many respondents wanted strict limits on noise, water consumption, pollution and demands on the electric grid. They also called for environmental reviews and a public vote before construction begins. A sizable minority favored moratoriums or outright bans.

“Unless we wean ourselves off AI — and we should for the sake of humanity — people are going to have to get used to the idea that they're going to be inconvenienced,” Bowman said.

Several survey respondents expressed frustration that these facilities are being forced upon their communities, leaving residents powerless to do much about it.