BEND, Ore. –- The debate, uproar, backlash – whatever you might call it – over AI and, more precisely, those large data centers and their impacts shows no signs of easing up, no matter who wins the midterms and which party ends up controlling Congress.

So finding common ground and mutual agreement on what the proper path should be could prove very difficult, perhaps impossible.

But there’s another, related and seemingly inconsequential but very noticeable “vocal split” one can hear in news reports such as the one “60 Minutes” aired Sunday night:

How do you properly pronounce “data”? Or rather, is there a “right” way to say it?

That TV report was split pretty much 50/50 on how people said the word, between “DAY-tuh” and “DAT-uh.” The report went back and forth (though the reporter used the 'DAT' variation consistently.)

That doesn’t help much, any more than a coin flip.

So as a lifelong reporter and “word nerd,” I first turned to the AP Stylebook - and I see no sign those editors have weighed in on the pronunciation split.

Did I then turn to a dictionary? Well, sort of.

I then asked my personal-favorite AI research tool, Perplexity. Here’s what it had to say:

“This is a real, long-running English-language divide, and the short answer is: There is no single ‘correct’ English pronunciation. Both DAY-tuh and DATT-uh are established pronunciations in American English; neither signals that the speaker misunderstands the word. … It is mainly a matter of dialect, generation, profession and individual habit.

It says the DAY-tuh version is common in the U.S. and dominant in Britain, but DAT-uh is “a well-established American pronunciation, especially in ordinary conversational speech.”

“Dictionaries say both are standard,” Perplexity tells me, hastening to add: “Readers may be less diplomatic.”

To make matters more fun, there’s a third pronunciation – DAH-tuh, which Perplexity says is “heard in some British, Australian and other varieties; also appears as a formal or individual U.S. preference.”

“Star Trek: The Next Generation" fans, of course, fondly remember Data (consistently pronounced DAY-tuh, by the way), the android constantly curious to learn it’s really like to be human. That may well have reinforced the prevalent pronunciation of the word in recent decades.

The Perplexity analysis goes on – of course – noting that looking back to Latin origins doesn’t really help today’s population resolve the issue. (Which in some ways reminds me of the never-ending debate over setting our clocks back and forward twice a year, and which time is the “right,” permanent pick going forward. Tradeoffs abound!)

Perplexity also says it finds no sign that the pro-con debate over data centers aligns with the pronunciation split.

“English has accommodated both forms for generations, and neither maps cleanly onto a side in the actual fight,” my “research assistant” said.

(Oh, and Perplexity also doesn’t find there’s been many/any articles or columns focusing on this particular speech divide we hear more of every day. So maybe I get to go… “first”?;-)

So I figured, why not have a little informal poll, right here at Barney’s Bend Bugle: Which pronunciation do you prefer, and “sounds right” to your ear and brain?

If you want to explain your vote, you can drop a comment below this article – or on our subreddit or Facebook page.

There are far bigger, more important and weighty AI-related issues to debate, of course. But the fact we don’t agree on this particular word’s pronunciation is at least worth noting, considering the glaring spotlight focused on the issue.

Of course, being me, I even came up with a joke in conclusion:

Two people who’ve never seen one come upon these huge buildings - and one says to the other: “What’s ‘dat’?!?"

The other replies: “DAT’s a data center!”

Pick your own punchline pronunciation. I think it’s amusing either way.😉