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The AI Gold Rush Has an Infrastructure Problem
Listen, everyone wants to build the future. Google just dropped $40 billion on Texas data centers. Musk launched an AI encyclopedia. Canada's artists are fighting back against machine-generated content. But here's the kicker: nobody's quite figured out how to make this work without breaking something fundamental.
Everything Is Bigger in Texas (Including the Problems)
Google's making it rain in Texas—$40 billion through 2027 for three new AI data centers. Governor Abbott showed up for the announcement, talking about how Texas is becoming the "epicenter of AI development." Great. Except there's a catch.
Texas already has 411 data centers, second only to Virginia. And the state's power grid? It's already struggling. ERCOT projects peak demand could nearly double by 2030. An energy researcher at UT Austin put it bluntly: "You're talking about a doubling of the electricity grid in five years... I just don't think we can physically build that much infrastructure that fast."
Google knows this. They're pledging to add 5 gigawatts back to the grid, building solar farms next to data centers, training 1,700 electrical apprentices. It's smart. But it's also reactive—trying to solve tomorrow's infrastructure crisis with today's promises.
When AI Makes an Encyclopedia, You Get What You Pay For
Meanwhile, Musk decided Wikipedia needed disrupting. Enter Grokipedia: 885,000 AI-generated articles promising "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."
The reality? Cornell researchers found it's a mess. One article on "Monday" was 96% identical to Wikipedia—except Grokipedia deleted all 22 citations. Articles cite Instagram Reels as sources. InfoWars shows up as a reference. The platform is 3.2 times more likely to cite unreliable sources than Wikipedia, and 13 times more likely to use blacklisted propaganda sites.
Here's what's wild: after an initial spike of 460,000 visits, traffic crashed 90% within weeks. Even curiosity couldn't sustain interest in an encyclopedia that looks authoritative but routinely botches basic facts.
Canada's Creatives Draw a Line
Up north, artists are watching AI-generated musicians hit Billboard charts and AI-written books flood Amazon. They're calling it "AI slop"—and they want a licensing regime.
The ask is straightforward: transparency about what data AI companies are using, and a system where creators can negotiate licenses for their work. Not a ban on AI. Not a halt to progress. Just the same rules we've had for decades when anyone else wants to use copyrighted material.
"We've been feeding a beast that now threatens to devour us," one artist told Parliament.
What This Actually Reveals
Three stories. One pattern. We're racing to build AI infrastructure—physical and digital—without the foundational systems to support it. Power grids that can't handle the load. Quality controls that don't exist. Copyright frameworks from a pre-AI era.
The AI revolution is happening. Texas is betting big. Musk is moving fast. Canada's trying to write new rules. But the thing is: innovation without infrastructure isn't innovation. It's just expensive chaos waiting to collapse under its own weight.
The question isn't whether AI is coming. It's whether we're building the grid—literal and metaphorical—that can actually sustain it.

