The AI data center boom is colliding with cities scarred by big industry

# AI's Growing Real-World Problem: Where to Put the Massive Buildings It Needs Companies building AI systems need enormous, power-hungry data centers to make them run, and they're now proposing to build these facilities in cities across America—sometimes in neighborhoods that have already suffered from decades of pollution and industrial damage. Philadelphia is the latest city facing this dilemma: officials there are considering placing a data center near a long-closed oil refinery in an area where residents have already endured years of environmental harm. The clash highlights a growing tension between the tech industry's expansion and the concerns of communities that have historically borne the environmental costs of industrial development.