It's the Brian Lairn Show.

I'm producer Amina Serna filling in for Brian today.

As demand for artificial intelligence grows, so do proposals for new data centers. These are

facilities where computers power AI, storing, processing, and sending out information. But

data centers tend to be massive in both size and energy consumption. And who pays for the additional

capacity? In her state of the state address,

Governor Kathy Hokel announced plans to shift more energy costs onto tech companies themselves.

Now, data centers are vital for innovative future, but they guzzle up tremendous amounts of

energy and leave ratepayersers footing the bill.

So if they want to build in New York, they have to pay their fair share for the power they use.

Here to walk us through that idea is Rosemary Misdari, Science Reporter for WNYC and Gothamist. Hi, Rosemary. Hi, Amina.

Let's start simple. What exactly are data centers? How do they power tools like artificial

intelligence? A data center is basically a large warehouse full of thousands of servers.

They're the physical computers that store,

process, and transmit digital information. When you stream a video, when you send an email,

when you use a search engine, or run an AI chatbot, your request travels to a data center

somewhere, gets processed, and the result comes back to you.

They're the physical backbone of the internet and cloud computing. Companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft,

operate massive ones globally. But so do banks, hospitals, universities, and governments.

That is the clearest or most concise description I've ever heard. Thank you.

So how many data centers are there in the state and where are they located?

Statewide, there's more than 130 data centers, and about half of them are located in the New York City metro area.

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