- OpenAI is hiring a "community engagement lead" for its Stargate team.
- The role will act as a liaison between OpenAI and the communities where it's building data centers.
- Americans are clashing with local governments and tech companies over data center developments.
OpenAI needs help reversing the American public's souring view of data centers.
The leading AI company shared a new job opening over the weekend for a position it called a "community engagement lead." These new employees would be tasked with talking to local communities in places where it plans to build its Stargate data centers.
One measure of success, it said, would be "reduced friction."
Tech companies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in building data centers to power their products. Local communities, however, are not always so welcoming. Many residents worry that the data centers will drain water supplies, raise electric bills, cause noise, and just generally reduce their quality of life.
AI companies argue that they can mitigate some of these problems by adopting new cooling techniques and paying for their own electricity costs. They also say these projects can create thousands of jobs in local communities, though many of those jobs are in the construction phase, which means they are temporary.
Protests have arisen across the country as communities push back. Prominent businessmen, like "Shark Tank" investor Kevin O'Leary, who is backing a data center development in Utah, have faced intense opposition.
Building data centers is a near existential requirement for AI companies, whose ever-advancing chatbots and agents require ever-growing amounts of data to work effectively. Some companies, like Elon Musk's SpaceX, are exploring building them in space.
The Stargate project — a partnership between OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and MGX — was announced by President Donald Trump the day after he began his second term. The group plans to invest $500 billion in AI infrastructure across the United States.
Stargate data centers are now planned in Texas, Michigan, New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Ohio.
In its job posting for the community engagement lead, OpenAI says that getting communities on board with these data centers was "mission-critical."
"This role ensures that communities understand what we are building, why it matters, and how they can meaningfully benefit from it," the company said.
OpenAI said potential candidates will be required to be based in, or willing to relocate to, communities where OpenAI is building data center sites. The job pays between $129,600 and $236,000, plus equity.
"The Community Engagement Lead will proactively shape dialogue, surface concerns before they escalate, and embed community priorities into how projects are planned, communicated, and delivered," it said.
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Lauren Edmonds is an award-winning reporter on the Business News team. When news isn't breaking, she covers personal finance, kitchen-table economics, and paths to financial freedom, including investing, real estate, side hustles, and small business. She also writes about guaranteed and universal basic income programs in the United States.Lauren has also covered lifestyle and entertainment, digital culture, and more. She has a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and resides in New York City.Do you have an interesting story to tell? You can reach Lauren at [email protected] or on Signal at ledmonds0.07.Popular StoriesNetflix wants to be Disney when it grows up Why Hollywood is paying this 17-year-old up to $20,000 to boost film trailers with TikTok editsHere's all the free money Trump's talked about giving Americans during his second term — and where it all standsA 17-year-old earned $72,000 after investing his e-commerce profits into stocks. Here's why he bet on the tech industry.Lawmakers float a nationwide basic income experiment that would cover the cost of a 2-bedroom apartmentNearly 30,000 Americans have received about $335 million in basic income. Here are 5 takeaways. Americans ditch suffocating healthcare costs and divisive politics to retire in Italy: 'It's the way they approach life'From 'road-schooling' to gas that costs $500, this family of 4 shares what it's like living in a solar-powered Greyhound bus
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