Is AI going to kill us all in 10 years?

If you have followed the news or social media in recently, you have probably seen this warning from well-known researchers, CEOs, and AI pioneers.

Unfortunately, these unfounded fears are beginning to shape policy decisions across the country. But they can also obscure an economic transformation already underway. Much of today’s debate over the jobs of the digital economy focuses on two myths: that data centers create few permanent jobs, and that AI will eliminate work faster than new opportunities can emerge.

In reality, building the infrastructure for AI will require electricians, engineers, construction workers, technicians, manufacturers, and utility workers. These are skilled, high-paying jobs, and communities that prepare for this growth can position themselves to benefit for decades.

The real question is not whether the digital economy will create jobs. It is whether communities will be ready to secure them.

Answering that question will require something increasingly easy to overlook: energy. The AI economy cannot run on software alone. It runs on electricity, infrastructure, and labor. Communities that want the jobs of the digital economy will need to build the power, workforce, and infrastructure to support it.

Data centers create thousands of construction jobs often lasting one to five years. Many projects extend beyond that timeline through phased construction, upgrades, or expansion. Once completed, data centers create hundreds of high-paying, permanent jobs in maintenance, engineering, software, and operations, depending on the facility type. Smaller co-location data centers create fewer permanent jobs than larger hyperscale facilities.

One of the most important factors in determining whether a data center will generate significant permanent employment is whether it includes on-site power. Many of the most consequential jobs created by the data center boom are tied to the energy infrastructure that powers these facilities. Yet these jobs are often overlooked in discussions of data center employment, despite notable examples across the country showing their potential to create durable, high-value work.

In Nevada, Google is partnering with a groundbreaking geothermal energy company to help add stable power to the local grid that supports its data centers. The project is not only carbon-free, but it also supports local energy sector jobs along with the permanent jobs created at Nevada’s Google data centers.

In Louisiana, Meta is not only building one of the world’s largest data centers but also developing the energy infrastructure to power it. Phase one of the project includes two natural gas facilities and is expected to create about 50 permanent jobs and 1,500 construction jobs, in addition to the data center’s initial 500 permanent positions. Future phases call for seven more natural gas plants, transmission upgrades, battery storage, and renewable energy projects. Together, these investments will create hundreds of energy jobs, in addition to the roughly 1,000 permanent jobs ultimately expected at the data center.

Finally, in Pennsylvania, Microsoft is supporting the restart of a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island to provide reliable, baseload electricity to the regional grid and help meet growing energy demand from its data center operations in the Northeast. The project is expected to create approximately 3,400 direct and indirect jobs, demonstrating how rising demand for data infrastructure can also spur investment in reliable energy and local economic growth.

The debate over AI will continue to focus, understandably, on what the technology might do in the future. But communities also face a more immediate question: whether they are prepared for the economic transformation already taking place.

The AI economy depends on electricity, infrastructure, skilled labor, and the ability to build. States that want to capture the jobs and investment associated with this growth will need an all-of-the-above energy strategy that can support reliable, affordable power. Whether through natural gas, geothermal energy, nuclear power, or other sources, policymakers should make it easier to build the energy infrastructure the digital economy requires.