There’s home in these hills: West Virginia isn’t AI’s dumping ground

There’s a joke that West Virginia is always 25 years behind. We’re not up on the latest fashion, we drive old cars and some of us still use landlines. The reality is, roughly 80 percent of West Virginia households don’t have reliable, high-speed internet . We also have the lowest artificial intelligence use in the country.

Yet we’re now being dragged at breakneck speed into a digital future that isn’t ours.

AI is hollowing out our way of life in Appalachia. Data centers are leveling our hills and hollers into muddy expanses that flood our homes , pollute our rivers and poison our air . Families are being pushed out of the only places they’ve ever belonged.

As I stare into a forest filled with waving ferns, flitting juncos and towering cherry trees, I worry that AI is destroying the very places where the essence of humanity still exists. I live in Davis, West Virginia, a town of 600 people nestled in the Allegheny Highlands. We grow our food, build our homes, fix our cars and always pass things along before throwing them away.

I can walk for miles in the woods without seeing a soul, but I can’t go to the grocery store without bumping into a friend. We recognize the value not only in our grit, but also in our kindness.

We may live small, but our lives are overflowing with connection, purpose and a steadfast sense of place. In a small town, people know your name. There’s room to carve out a niche and contribute in your own way. Yet, we live among some of the oldest and most biodiverse mountains in the world. The joy of living in Appalachia is feeling our significance while being constantly humbled by the vast array of life around us.

Now that world is being transformed. West Virginia is being sold out to the lowest bidders in the AI race due to a 2025 bill that fast-tracks power plant and data center developments while stripping power from communities . By removing guardrails and preempting local control, our state legislators sent a resounding message to out-of-state interests: West Virginia is for sale. Our people don’t matter.

State officials, speculative developers and out-of-state AI companies tout empty promises of economic benefits and good-paying jobs, while overlooking the costs and brushing off our concerns . A representative from the Virginia-based company that aims to build a 10,000-acre power plant and data center complex in my hometown, said people like me live in “ the middle of nowhere .” The company’s proposed power plant is “ just a drop in the bucket .”

Those building AI and hyperscale data centers are fighting ever faster to create something that aims to replace us. They are obscuring the line between person and computer, while driving a wedge between humanity and the living world. To achieve this, they’ve worked with seeming indifference to transform our farms and forests into rows of lifeless warehouses. Rural communities are bearing the burden of this digital future, but it’s also a future we don’t want.

The future I dream about is already here. It’s in the mountains, gardens, neighborhood bike rides, locally owned businesses and town hall meetings. It’s knowing I can always call a friend for help, and if I’m out of service (which is often), it’s knowing a stranger will stop to ask if I’m ok. It’s in the hearts of West Virginians who fight every day for clean water, healthcare, public school resources, land protections, childcare support and a meaningful local voice.

The beauty of Appalachia is that we don’t just look at our mountains from afar — we are part of them just as they are part of us. In some ways, rural places harken back to an older way of life. But they also offer roadmaps for a more humane future. We know the harm caused by endless extraction. Our future is saying no to yet another extractive industry and saying yes to the way of life West Virginians have already built together.

Beyond threatening our land, water and way of life, AI has called into question what it means to be human and what kind of society we want to live in. It’s been difficult to confront these questions, but it’s also brought the answers into stark relief. Regardless of age, background, location, religion or our politics, the vast majority of us have known the answers all along.

Our future is being human — together — in each little pocket of the planet we call home.

Nikki Forrester is co-founder of Tucker United, a grassroots coalition fighting a proposed data center complex in Tucker County, West Virginia, and advocating for a community-driven economic development.