Wednesday June 24, 2026
Maven’s Notebook —
The last thing California needs is a new unregulated use for water
From the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN): As the tech sector, their billionaire investors and the Trump regime aggressively foist AI on every niche of society, commerce and government, people are pushing back against its destructive power. One of the central battlegrounds is the proliferation of data centers: sprawling complexes jammed with servers that run AI models and tools and require massive amounts of energy and water.
These centers are springing up all over the country, including, of course, California: the birthplace of modern digital technology. More than 300 data centers are planned for our state—and that may well be just the beginning.
Unsurprisingly, our elected officials—many of whom benefit from tech sector campaign contributions—are well behind the curve when it comes to regulation of the AI juggernaut. As a result, AI technology is already wreaking havoc, from aiding suicidal ideation to fomenting violence and sexual abuse. Further, a recent MIT Media Lab study found that “…excessive reliance on AI-driven solutions…” may cause “cognitive atrophy.” That’s right: AI is making us stupider. We are literally outsourcing our brains to Large Language Models.
In California, the most immediate concern is water. We are a semi-arid state that is rapidly growing even drier through climate change. Water rights claims already exceed supplies by more than five times and critical groundwater basins are overdrafted, with 80% of our developed water going to industrial agriculture at subsidized rates.