The claim that AI data centers will create lots of good jobs is mostly false, and the real goal is cheaper labor — bad news for workers.

• A finished data center employs only 20 to 200 permanent staff; the big job numbers are temporary construction work.
• Companies are already using data on people's credit and pay history to figure out who is desperate enough to work for less, especially contractors, gig drivers and traveling nurses.
• Workers most exposed to AI are seeing weaker wage growth — not layoffs yet, just less money.
• The buildout runs on debt: over $220 billion issued this year, double last year, with borrowing costs climbing and lenders increasingly wary of circular deals where suppliers finance their own customers.
• Anthropic lost about $42 billion last year, five times the prior year, while heading toward a giant IPO.
• China is pulling ahead in robotics, with a humanoid robot in Beijing running 100 meters faster than Usain Bolt's record.

Outlook: More data centers mean higher electricity bills and downward pressure on wages, while the debt behind the boom gets harder to sell.