SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Data centers and artificial intelligence have been the hottest topic all around the country. Especially local, Cyrus One has been approved to build one of their data centers right here in Sangamon County. Ryan McCrady, the CEO of the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance, was a guest on the WTAX Morning Newswatch to discuss data centers.

Misinformation is everywhere, especially on the topic of data centers. The misinformation spreads daily.

“You can’t keep it from being spread. You have to offset it and, you know, and that’s we’re working hard to do. Probably the one thing that I continue to see is statements about it using thousands of gallons of water a day. 
But the newer model data centers, which this one is, uses a closed loop cooling system. The same water is going to be in there for 10 years. They don’t want that water out circulating. 
They don’t want it being exposed to the environment, for possible contamination reasons and everything else. So that’s what the one thing that’s consistently continuing to be put out there. And a lot of times it’s put out there through, you know, memes or graphics made by A.I.”

When you don’t know it, we use A.I. all the time.

“You make a transaction at a store using electronic means, whether it’s debit credit or Apple Pay. You using a data center every time you communicate with your medical provider or, you know, make an appointment online or, you know, use online chatting to talk to family members that live at a distance, you know, every text message we send, everything is very, very reliant on this internet and data center network. 
And A.I. is causing an increase in data center construction, but a data center construction boom has been coming for the last couple years.”

A.I. is used just for about anything now. Pictures being generate, chat bots being created, should we fear it possibly taking our jobs?

“It’s hard to say what’ll happen in the future and how AI will be applied into the major industries here in our community. 
I encourage people to, you know, kind of AI proof themselves, learn to use it. It’s like any tool that comes along. I mean, we had similar concerns when the internet was created. 
is our computer’s going to take all the jobs that are out there. And what you want to do is learn how to use that tool to make yourself more valuable”