The rise of artificial intelligence is requiring faster and bigger computations for even simple tests than for say a Google search.

It's adding to the demand for more internet data centers, the places that house all those servers that keep the

Internet running. But as Ali Rogan reports, there's a price to pay for that.

Demand for data centers is growing rapidly,

but these facilities come at a big environmental cost,

especially for the communities that host them.

Northern Virginia is the largest data center hub in the world.

The area is responsible for processing nearly 70% of global

digital traffic. It's a rate that local officials say is unsustainable.

Saatchikitagima Molki is a science journalist and writer for the climate focus news outlet Gris.

Saatchi, thank you so much for joining us.

First of all, tell us a little bit more about what a data center is and why do we need so many of them?

Whenever we use the internet, upload photos to the clouds,

send emails, watch a video, all of that data and digital information needs a home,

and it lives in these huge facilities called Data Centers,

which hold tens of thousands of servers each and they

process all that digital information for us.

Something like 70% of the world's digital information is processed by a cluster of data centers in Virginia alone and there are over 5,000 facilities in the U.S.

What are the environmental impacts of having some of these data centers in your backyard?

So to process all that information they need two things.

The first is electricity, of course, to physically crunch and process all that gigabyte going on.

The other is water, which are used in cooling systems to protect these servers from physically overheating.

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