Perhaps You Knew That

Tonight, kindly words for the University of Utah and its AI programs. Perhaps you know the school ranks as one of the nation's top research universities. Perhaps you know it is one of the country’s top centers for AI‑driven health research. The sovereign AI factory is truly unique. Perhaps you know that. The U operates one of the only sovereign AI factories in the country — a secure, state‑controlled AI supercomputing environment. This triples the university's computing capacity, enables advanced medical and scientific breakthroughs, supports statewide innovation, and provides secure infrastructure for public‑entity data. This is a rare, nationally distinctive asset. The University leads a statewide network coordinating AI concerns. Very few states have anything comparable. Did you know that? Perhaps you did. The school provides industry partnerships -- anchored by global leaders. This positions the University as a regional AI powerhouse. Through workshops and seminars, AI literacy programs are offered to all faculty members and to every student, regardless of major. This puts it ahead of most U.S. universities. Perhaps you already knew that. But if you didn't, you do now.

(Blogs)

Data Centers: Consuming Our Water and Polluting Our Air

Utah is swamped with data centers, each swallowing up water. About 40 of them stretch from Ogden to St. George. Now, two large data centers are being proposed for Millard County. How much water might they use? The Utah Rivers Council estimates such large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons of water per day-- enough to serve a city with 40,000 people for a year.

Utah should be concerned. This is arid desert country. We should be very protective of our water as it is a precious commodity. 

Of the two projects in Millard County, one says it will have a closed-loop cooling system, using non-water fluids and thus resulting in 90 percent less water use. These two claims, however, come from the company and have not been independently verified.

The second project in Millard is expected to be the largest data center in the nation. It too will have a closed-loop heating and cooling system. No water usage estimates have been released for it.

Company officials at the larger data center have said it will have its own power plant. Owners of the other center-- the Creekstone/Creek Energy project-- have hinted at the same, but that has not been confirmed. The larger project-- the Joule center-- is to be powered by 69 natural-gas generators per building. Since six buildings are proposed, that adds up. With that many generators running night and day, it means toxic emissions of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxides, volatile organic compounds, and particulate matter all being poured into Millard County and Utah's air.

(Blog)

Bless and Praise Anthropic

You might recall that the Pentagon used and AI model from Anthropic to help capture Venezuela's Nicolas Madero. Anthropic reminded the Pentagon of the company's guardrails, suggesting AI should not be used for mass surveillance of the public and it must not be given power to kill without a human control.

The Trump administration did not like that, so it terminated Anthropic's Pentagon work and banned other federal agencies from using Anthropic. Anthropic sued, and a judge blocked the government from blacklisting Anthropic. 

From its start, Athropic’s entire identity is built upon a foundation embedding safety principles directly into AI behavior. The company should be lauded, praised and honored for placing such moral in its AI models. It is an all-American company. In an age of corruption, it still holds to ethics. Other companies—OpenAI, Google, xAI—accepted government contracts lacking the guardrails that Anthropic requires.

Checkpoints for Violent Immigrants

Too often, immigrants come to the U.S. and commit heinous crimes, Opponents of immigration use this to argue for deportation and for keeping the immigrants from coming in the first place. They argue that for every 10 good immigrants, there will be one who will pull off terrible crimes and thus we should lock them all out.

I'd hate to see that. For the good part, these are people seeking the freedom of the U.S., and to join families, and to work.

I'm wondering if some kind of checkpoint program might catch such criminals. Traffic-stop checkpoints? Checkpoints at bars? Checkpoints at grocery stores? I'm not sure. For one thing, you do too much of this and the average citizen might feel hassled.

But I would like to believe such a system would work, even if it had to be done on a scaled-down basis.