The fight over data centers in Michigan

The Michigan Public Service Commission will hold a public hearing on Wednesday over DTE’s application for approval of contracts for a massive AI data center in Saline Township. It comes after DTE tried to fast-track the contracts and avoid public hearings. But, this is just one example of the ongoing fight over data centers in Michigan. There are 57 data centers in Michigan, including 27 in Detroit, five in Ann Arbor and one in Monroe. The proposed data centers are looking to be located in Kent, Berrien, Livingston, Washtenaw and Kalkaska counties. To help navigate all of this data center talk, two professors — Dr. Chris Kobus, an engineering professor at Oakland University, and Dr. Dongxiao Zhu, a computer science professor at Wayne State University — joined Local 4 Live.