Between The Headlines | September Edition
Water. Electricity. Data centers. Creativity. Copyright. Convenience. Morality.
Artificial intelligence has gone from something that sounded futuristic to something many of us interact with every day.
We ask it questions. We use it to brainstorm. We write with it. We create images with it. We summarize documents. We plan trips. Businesses use it to analyze information, automate tasks and produce content. Students use it to study. Artists experiment with it. Writers use it to overcome creative blocks.
And while all of this is happening, something else is happening behind the screen.
Buildings are being constructed.
Chips are being manufactured.
Electricity is being consumed.
Water is being used to cool machines.
Land is being developed.
Power grids are being expanded.
And copyrighted material, including books, journalism, artwork and other creative works, has become part of an enormous legal and ethical debate over how AI systems should be trained.
So the question isn’t simply:
“Is AI good or bad?”
That question is too small.
A better question is:
What does AI actually cost—and who is paying that cost?
As of September 2026, there is enough evidence to say that AI has real environmental and social costs. There is also enough evidence to say that some of the most dramatic claims circulating online go beyond what the evidence can currently establish.
Both things can be true.
To be continued……………
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