{
  "id": 17784,
  "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/09/slough-famous-the-office-datacentres-locals-hub-europe",
  "title": "As AI guzzles water and energy, we are already facing a choice: datacentres or homes? | John Harris",
  "summary": "Whitehall wants to triple their number in the UK. Yet in Slough, I saw the impact they’re having on communities Amid headlines about the UK’s drought , Europe’s wildfires and impossible global temperatures, it was 28C when I arrived in Slough last Monday. I was there to look around Slough Trading Estate, a place that might once have conjured up images of the TV comedy The Office , many of whose laughs came at the expense of this overgrown patch of suburbia, 20-odd miles west of London. But these",
  "authors": "John Harris",
  "category": "news",
  "topics": "environment",
  "orgs": null,
  "regions": "eu,uk",
  "published_at": "2026-08-09T11:03:18.000Z",
  "fetched_at": "2026-08-10T05:10:00.488Z",
  "source_slug": "guardian-ai",
  "source_name": "The Guardian",
  "source_homepage": "https://www.theguardian.com",
  "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/17784",
  "original_url": "https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/09/slough-famous-the-office-datacentres-locals-hub-europe",
  "evidence_status": "source-only",
  "attribution": "via ethics.ai"
}