(Wired) – A data center in Paris has been hooked up to the energy system heating the Olympic pool. But critics say that projects recycling data centers’ excess heat are a distraction from the real environmental costs of AI.

In the suburbs of northeast Paris, there is a giant terra-cotta-colored warehouse with a labyrinth of windowless corridors inside. A deafening whir emanates from behind rows and rows of anonymous gray doors, and under white striplights, disposable earbuds are available to protect passersby from the noise.

These are the uncanny innards of one of France’s newest data centers, completed earlier this year, which is now being used to heat the new Olympic Aquatics Center—visible from the data center’s roof. When US swimming star Katie Ledecky won her ninth Olympic gold medal last week, she did it by speeding through water heated, at least in part, by the data center’s machinery. (Read More)