# water resources

Rapid AI infrastructure growth is colliding with finite utilities and escalating local opposition, underscoring mounting political and regulatory risk. Inside companies, efficiency pushes are coinciding with widespread layoffs and concerns about deskilling, revealing a widening gap between promised productivity and human outcomes.

The AI buildout is increasingly shifting energy, water, and governance costs onto public systems, even as companies accelerate scale-first strategies. New warnings about grid reliability, heavy water draws, layoffs tied to a $145 billion AI budget, and porous API markets underscore rising risks for communities, workers, and investors.