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David Owen: Epoch AI used ChatGPT agents to search local data center permits

David Owen · The 2045 Superintelligence Timeline: Epoch AI’s Data-Driven Forecast · Nov 24, 2025 · at 28:07

David Owen, a researcher at Epoch AI, describes how Epoch AI applied ChatGPT's GUI automation capabilities to search janky US county databases for environmental and tax permits.

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“We used ChatGPT agent in our data center research, because a lot of what we have to do is find permits, which are all going to be on janky county by county databases of error permits for, you know, the county that Abilene, Texas is in and I don't know what databases exist for every county in the US. ChatGPT does.”

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