This is a civic intelligence resource — built for people who want to understand AI's impact on energy and water, and do something about it. It has a methodology, a point of view, and a north star. None of those are hidden.
This phrase belongs to the Global Institute for AI & Humanity. It means: artificial intelligence should expand human agency, not erode it. It should serve communities, not extract from them. It should be built with transparency, governed with accountability, and distributed in a way that doesn't concentrate benefit among those who already have the most.
That's not a political position. It's a standard — one that applies equally to technology companies, to governments, and to citizens themselves. This resource holds everyone to it, including its readers.
Every section of this resource is organized around the AI Thinking Model™ — a framework developed by Liz B. Baker for rigorous engagement with complex issues in the AI era.
The model develops five capacities:
Not opposition dressed up as thinking. The ability to examine claims, evaluate evidence, identify sources and incentives, and apply the same rigorous standard to all parties — including yourself. The AI Thinking Model treats critical thinking as the capacity that makes all the others possible.
Not just knowledge. The integration of historical experience, cross-cultural understanding, and long-term thinking into present decisions. Wisdom asks: what do we know from having been here before? What does the long view demand of us right now?
Not cheerleading for technology. The honest assessment of what is genuinely new, what it makes possible, what its second-order effects are, and how it can be shaped rather than merely accepted. Innovation asks: what is real, what is hype, and what conditions produce benefit rather than harm?
Not complaint. The identification of where power actually lives in a given decision, when it can be engaged, and what leverage looks like in practice. Strategy asks: what can I actually do, in what forum, by what deadline, with what effect?
Running in every direction simultaneously. What do companies owe communities? What do governments owe citizens? What do citizens owe each other? And — the question most frameworks skip — what do I owe, right now, in my individual choices and advocacy? Ethics without self-application is not ethics.
Together, these five capacities spell WISE — with Critical Thinking as the foundation beneath them all.
The model operates in three phases: Configure (set up your thinking tools), Think Well (apply the five capacities to real issues), and Transform (develop capacities that compound over time, making you a more effective thinker, leader, and citizen). This resource demonstrates the Think Well phase applied to a real, consequential issue.
This resource has a point of view: AI's demand on energy infrastructure, if governed well, could accelerate an upgrade America has needed for decades while expanding opportunity for communities. That's an argument, not a neutral summary.
It's grounded in evidence. The evidence that complicates that argument is included deliberately — not because this resource claims perfect balance, but because an argument that hides inconvenient facts isn't worth making. The concerns about water, cost, transparency, and equitable distribution are named without softening.
What this resource does not do: advocate for any specific company, technology, or policy outcome. It advocates for informed public engagement with decisions being made right now — with or without you.
All claims are cited to primary sources. All scores are methodology-based and updated as conditions change. This is not a once-and-done document. It grows as the situation evolves.
This resource is not funded by technology companies, utilities, energy companies, or advocacy groups. It is produced by the Global Institute for AI & Humanity and reflects the independent analysis of Liz B. Baker.
Founder of Nimbology and the Global Institute for AI & Humanity. Speaker, executive coach, and strategist focused on AI's intersection with human potential and civic life.
Author of The AI Thinking Model: The Secret to Reclaiming Critical Thinking in the AI Era. Twenty years of Fortune 500 leadership in digital transformation and organizational strategy.
Pro-AI because of what it can do for people. Deeply focused on preventing what it could do to people.
globalaihumanity.org →Each section carries a score from 1–10: 1 means something is happening to communities. 10 means it's happening for them.
Scored against five criteria: transparency, cost equity, community benefit, environmental accountability, and democratic participation. Methodology is documented. Scores update as conditions change.
The Global Institute for AI & Humanity works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human flourishing — focused on the conditions that make AI work for people rather than to them.
Visit GIAH →