Erin Brockovich made a map to track data centers around the country

According to Nieman Lab, environmental advocate Erin Brockovich has built a mapping tool to track the distribution of data centers across the United States, accompanied by a form that lets the public report the presence and potential impacts of data centers in their own communities. The backdrop to this tool is the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure across the country. On the website, Brockovich notes that the race to build AI infrastructure is unfolding town by town: some places welcome data centers, while others see delays, protests, or canceled projects. The map attempts to portray the real-world footprint of this race, including growth, conflict, and uncertainty. As cited by Nieman Lab, at the time of the report the map showed 33 operational data centers, 44 data centers under construction, and 27 in the planning stage; it had also received 2,716 community reports. This article is not itself a technology release or model-related news; rather, it brings the issue of the physical infrastructure behind the AI boom into public discussion. For Taiwanese readers, the key takeaway is that AI does not exist solely at the level of models, APIs, and applications—it also relies on enormous amounts of electricity, water resources, land, networks, and local permitting. As demand for data centers grows rapidly, local residents, journalists, policymakers, and researchers all need more transparent data to understand which facilities are being built, who is affected, and where controversies are concentrated. Nieman Lab also notes that data-center investigation is gradually becoming its own news beat, indicating that the social and environmental costs of the AI industry will increasingly need to be tracked through data maps, community reports, and local investigations.