The Lawfare Podcast Lawfare Daily: A Trip Through Pennsylvania’s Nascent AI Data Center Industry
6 snips
Sep 18, 2025 Maia Woluchem leads Data & Society's Trustworthy Infrastructures program, with Livia Garofalo, an anthropologist, and Joan Mukogosi, a PhD candidate, discussing their research on AI data centers in Pennsylvania. They explore the state’s industrial legacy and the environmental impacts of these centers on local communities. The trio illuminates the tension between short-term job creation and long-term costs, highlights local priorities over national narratives, and shares insights from their community engagements during their fieldwork.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Pennsylvania As A Representative Case
- Pennsylvania's mix of post-industrial, industrial, and rural communities makes it a vivid lens for understanding AI infrastructure impacts.
- The state's deep industrial history reveals how new AI sites interact with existing social and economic legacies.
Data Centers Don't Mirror Old Industrial Jobs
- Data centers rarely recreate the stable, unionized manufacturing jobs of the past and often provide temporary construction roles.
- Promises of long-term family-forming employment frequently overstate the local economic benefits of hyperscale infrastructure.
Three Mile Island Visit And Local Reactions
- The team visited Three Mile Island to examine the renewed nuclear plant tied to Microsoft and Constellation Energy.
- Locals expressed mixed reactions, weighing job prospects against long memories of environmental harm.