Guysss… Oregon has a problem — and it’s a big one this time.

In Morrow County, out in eastern Oregon, people are reporting higher rates of certain cancers and miscarriages — and experts think the culprit might be lurking in the drinking water.

And here’s the twist: some of those experts say Amazon’s data centers might be making things worse.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Amazon data centers don’t even use nitrates… so why the blame?”

Great question. Because this whole story is basically one giant plot twist.

So, Morrow County is packed with mega-farms and food-processing plants, right? Those already dump nitrate-heavy wastewater into the environment, and yes that's been an issue for years. But then Amazon showed up, built multiple data centers, and started pulling tens of millions of gallons of groundwater to cool their servers.

Here’s where things go sideways:

When you pull that much water out, wastewater shifts around… and nitrates get pushed deeper into the aquifer people rely on.

And the soil in this area? Super porous. Like “pour in a cup of water and it instantly vanishes” porous. Meaning nitrates don’t stay put, they sink straight down. 

Rolling Stone found wells testing at 73 parts per million of nitrates. For context, that’s 10 times the state limit of 7ppm and seven times the federal limit.

So yeah… this is way way above what’s considered safe.

Experts say Amazon’s data centers are basically supercharging the problem. Because when they use that already-contaminated water to cool servers, the water evaporates — but the nitrates don’t. So the wastewater they put back can end up even more concentrated. 

And get this: Some samples hit 56 ppm, which is still wildly above safety limits.

Amazon’s response?

They say the reporting is “misleading,” that their water use is tiny compared to the entire system, and that the nitrate issue existed long before they arrived.

And sure — the groundwater problems weren’t new. But if that’s true, and they knew water safety was already a crisis…why build a water-hungry facility in a place already struggling to keep people safe?

And more importantly: Why not take extra precautions when people rely on that aquifer to drink, cook, and… literally live?

Meanwhile, about 40% of residents there live below the poverty line — which means less political power, fewer resources, and fewer options.

That’s why advocates are calling the whole situation “Flint 2.0 vibes” where the people hurt the most are the ones least equipped to fight back.

The Big Picture

This is the messy side of tech infrastructure nobody really talks about.

Data centers don’t just beam Netflix to your homes or power your favorite AI tools — they drink ungodly amounts of water to stay cool.

And when you drop them into rural, low-income communities with fragile groundwater systems… well, you get what we’re seeing in Oregon.

If you drink water, use the internet, rely on AI, or just care about communities getting steamrolled by big systems — this story matters. And honestly? More people should know about it.

Here’s the full detail on this exposé.

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Three years ago yesterday, OpenAI dropped ChatGPT with the most low-key description imaginable — “a model that interacts in a conversational way.”

But what they actually launched was a digital earthquake that rattled tech, business, geopolitics, and basically every industry with a pulse. And yeah… none of us have stopped talking about it since.

So what actually happened between that quiet launch in 2022 and the absolutely wild AI ecosystem we’re living in now?

For starters, ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer app of all time and somehow still sits at the top of Apple’s free charts three years later.

And according to “Empire of AI” author Karen Hao, OpenAI is now “more powerful than pretty much any nation-state in the world.” 

And yes, that's no hyperbole. This one model changed how governments strategize, how companies build products, how students study, how executives make decisions — everything.

Not bad for a chatbot that started life answering math questions and writing breakup texts, huh?

But the biggest aftershock wasn’t cultural, it was financial.

Once ChatGPT hit the scene, Nvidia’s stock didn’t just go up; it went 979% up, turning GPUs into the new oil.

And the Magnificent Seven — Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Broadcom — basically carried the entire stock market on their backs. Together, they’re responsible for almost half of the S&P 500’s gains since ChatGPT launched.

Translation: AI didn’t just move markets… it became the market.

And this is where things get spicy.

Even the people steering the generative-AI rocketship are like, “Hey, maybe this is a little too much euphoria.”

Sam Altman warned that “someone is going to lose a phenomenal amount of money in AI,” and Bret Taylor flat-out called it a “bubble.”

But then he immediately followed it with, “AI will transform the economy.”

So yeah, classic tech moment: panic and optimism doing a little tango.

Meanwhile, the workforce? Totally rattled.

Charlie Warzel from The Atlantic calls this era “the world ChatGPT built,” where everyone feels like they’re constantly waiting for the next big drop — a new model, a new capability, a new disruption. Young workers wonder which jobs will still exist; older workers wonder if the jobs they spent decades mastering still matter. And because AI is never in its “final form,” that uncertainty just keeps going.

So as we hit the three-year mark, the real question isn’t if AI will reshape the next decade, it’s how fast, and who gets swept up, boosted, or blindsided along the way.

Because if the last three years felt like the future on fast-forward… the next three are going to feel like someone hit the skip intro button on the entire world.

One thing’s for sure: the pace isn’t slowing down — because it hasn’t once since November 30, 2022.

In today’s world, where news never stops, AI that can summarize articles quickly and accurately is basically a superpower. 

We compared ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek on the same article to see which model delivers concise, clear summaries without losing critical details.

For anyone who wants to stay informed fast—or repurpose content efficiently—this test separates the quick and clean from the messy and vague.

How to Make This Prompt Work Effectively

PS: The live side-by-side comparison of ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek tackling this task is exclusive to our premium subscribers. If you want in on the AI news summarization showdown, now’s the time to upgrade.

⚡ Prompts to try:

P.S. Each Workout of the Day (WoD) is powered by original prompts written by our team — no recycled or external templates here. That means lower risk of prompt injection or manipulation, and higher trust in what you’re creating.

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