I thought it was notable that in Google's press release yesterday regarding their new facilities near Amarillo they seemed to go out of their way to point out that the applications are not AI, listing "Search, Gmail, Maps, Cloud, online banking, and 911 systems" instead. I wonder if they find it more convenient to rent an existing one rather than face public scrutiny for building another "AI data center".
Perhaps. It also seems to insulate Google from the risk that air quality regulators will be unexpectedly reinvigorated, while still providing to Google the benefits of xAI's lawlessness.