OpenAI Promises Greater Transparency, Community Engagement on Data Centers

AI developer OpenAI has changed course on its approach to siting and building data centers, now pledging it will publish data on water and power use, and work more openly with local communities, by mostly ceasing its policy of forcing public officials to sign the nondisclosure agreements that have angered local communities, and prompted a nationwide pushback.

According to The New York Times, OpenAI announced on November 5 a National Community Compact that will govern going forward how it deals with the communities where it builds its giant data centers, which it now calls “compute campuses.” In perhaps unintentionally frank wording that may or may not repair the damage to its public reputation, the company titles its new approach “Building With Communities, Not Just In Them.”

According to CleanView.com, the U.S. currently has 1,419 data centers operating, and 567 under construction.

Under OpenAI's Compact, from now on, each campus that the company owns and operates will have its own local agreement, and the company will provide an annual public report. OpenAI also pledges to pay the full cost of the electricity it uses, and the grid upgrades needed to serve it, posting financial guarantees so that local households and businesses are not left paying for grid upgrades if a project is canceled. It will also stop requiring local officials to sign the deeply controversial nondisclosure agreements, except for narrow security and trade-secret exceptions. As a sign of goodwill, the company said it had voided such an agreement in Effingham County, Georgia, in July.

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