Politicians Float Plans to Tax Artificial Intelligence Boom - govtech.com

Oh, wonderful. As if the AI industry wasn't already a case study in regulatory paralysis, now some bright spark has decided the solution is—wait for it—taxation. Yes, the same folks who can't agree on whether to ban deepfakes or mandate kill switches are now reaching for the fiscal toolbox. The govtech.com article reports that 'some progressives' are floating a tax on AI tokens, because nothing says 'harnessing the future' like slapping a usage levy on every prompt your chatbot generates.

But wait, there's more. They're also proposing an excise tax on data center energy usage. Because the data centers—already straining power grids and guzzling water like hungover frat boys at a keg stand—clearly need an extra financial burden. This isn't regulation; it's a surcharge on progress. It's the political equivalent of a parking ticket for a runaway train. One can almost hear the venture capitalists weeping into their oat-milk lattes as they calculate the per-token overhead.

But let's be honest: this is all theatre. Taxing tokens won't slow AI development; it'll just push it offshore or into the black market of serverless inference. And an energy tax? That'll incentivise data centres to relocate to jurisdictions with cheaper coal. Because the environment loves that. So congratulations to the progressives: you've managed to propose a policy that simultaneously stifles innovation, encourages tax evasion, and accelerates climate change. Truly, a hat-trick of unintended consequences. Pass the aspirin.