When AI Infrastructure Is Optional but Governance Lock-In Is Not: An AI-SNI Local Governance Diagnostic of the Temple (GA) Data Center Proposal

This working paper applies the AI-Strategic Node Index (AI-SNI), a governance-oriented diagnostic framework, to assess whether a proposed large-scale data center constitutes a structurally necessary node within AI-mediated systems. Using the case of the proposed “Project Bus” data center campus in Temple, Georgia, the analysis demonstrates that while the facility may offer commercial or optional future capacity, it does not satisfy criteria for structural necessity or non-substitutability under current evidentiary conditions. Instead, the project primarily generates governance burden and long-term path-dependency risks disproportionate to its demonstrated system relevance. The paper illustrates how necessity-based diagnostics can support local infrastructure governance by distinguishing between optional AI-enabling capacity and infrastructure that is system-critical for AI-mediated sensing, prediction, decision, or governance architectures. The AI-SNI is applied with explicit interpretive downgrading and de-strategization safeguards, ensuring that results are not used for ranking, investment signaling, or policy endorsement.