This week: debunking the AI water panic, why data center opposition is really about fear of job loss, and how a free side project from 2004 became the backbone of how we talk to AI.
1. The AI water issue is fake
Andy Masley
Published: 10/11/2025
The AI water issue is fake
Andy Masley breaks down the real numbers behind AI’s water use and finds the panic doesn’t hold up. All US data centers combined used about 0.2% of the nation’s freshwater in 2023, and roughly 80% of what gets counted as “AI water use” actually happens offsite at the power plants generating electricity, a cost every other electricity user shares too.
Even the local water problems blamed on AI usually trace back to construction sediment, not operations, which makes most of the coverage closer to misinformation than reporting.
Filed Under: #ai #dataCenters #environmentalImpact #analysis #misinformation #receipts #waterUse
2. Data Center Discontent, Understanding the Opposition, Fixing the Problem
Ben Thompson
Published: 05/18/2026
Local moratoriums on AI data centers driven by psychological fear of job loss and AI disruption rather than environmental concerns
Ben Thompson argues that opposition to AI data centers isn’t really about water or power at all. People didn’t get a vote when globalization shut down factories, but they do get a vote on data center permits, and many are using that leverage to push back against a technology they fear will take their jobs.
His fix is blunt: stop offering vague tax breaks and start cutting residents direct checks tied to the data center’s revenue, since real money is the only thing that will outweigh the anxiety that misinformation feeds on.
Filed Under: #stratechery #aiInfrastructure #dataCenters #publicOpinion
3. How Markdown took over the world
Anil Dash
Published: 01/09/2026
How Markdown took over the world
John Gruber built Markdown in 2004 as a personal fix for writing blog posts without wrestling with raw HTML, then gave it away for free. Two decades later it’s the default text format almost everywhere, from GitHub docs and Slack messages to Google Docs, Apple Notes, and Obsidian.
The twist is that the same format Gruber invented to make blogging easier is now how the biggest AI labs script their most advanced models.
Filed Under: #markdown #openStandards #webDevelopment #softwareAdoption
