Thousands of people around the country, in small towns and cities alike, have packed town meetings or demonstrated against the massive data centers being constructed or proposed in their communities. A Gallup survey found that seven out of ten Americans oppose these artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in their local area.
Meanwhile, the big tech corporations and the governments that serve their interests have been plowing forward with data center construction, destroying forests and farmland, to get these centers built as quickly as possible. Many of their permits include construction of new fossil fuel energy facilities, such as new coal or diesel plants. Many are proposed near large rivers or bodies of water, to supply the running fresh water needed to keep the high-powered data centers cool. And the projects are also being proposed along new rail lines or new power lines, to take advantage of the infrastructure construction for their own energy needs.
This massive rush to set up these noisy, water-guzzling, energy hoarders is driven by a huge speculation into AI as a profitable technology. For AI to become profitable for those in power, the technology requires insane amounts of data, energy, water, and rare earth minerals used for chips.
The capitalists are in a race to become the first and best at developing and implementing AI that is powerful enough to dominate future economic developments in the world’s economy. There is a mounting competition between the capitalists of the U.S. and China. The Chinese economy and technological developments are surpassing the stagnating U.S. economy in many areas. There is increasing and open tension developing over the control of deposits of rare earth and other minerals. The mining of these minerals is devastating huge areas of South, Central, and North America and Africa.
The huge demand for energy to operate the massive data centers has accelerated fossil fuel extraction in all areas of the world. The current U.S./Israeli war on Iran is a direct result of these resource wars, and many more are assured to come. Energy grids will serve data centers rather than the people who live near them.
The disregard for anything that does not generate profits distorts the possibilities for AI to be used for beneficial purposes. AI in the hands of the capitalists will always be designed and implemented in the interests of profits and power. Their aim is to increase labor productivity, and control all of us via surveillance and policing, all while consuming massive amounts of the world’s dwindling resources, which we need to live.
AI is being used to advance military technology around the world to target, track, and kill their declared enemies and thousands more in what they call collateral damage. It is used to collect every bit of information it can about us to train their data sets, to better exploit and monitor us. It is used in workplaces to track and increase the pace of work to maximize production. And those who work with computers are increasingly being required to use AI –training it to do their work. AI is also isolating us from each other when we’re forced to interact with AI instead of one another. AI is being forced onto us, whether we consent or not.
We don’t have to accept this. Just like other technological advances, AI could be used to meet the needs of the majority with a minimal impact on our ecosystems. AI can be used to help us with complex data analysis and logistical problems to ensure that resources are being used optimally to meet everyone’s basic needs. It could guide possibilities for dealing with the complex challenges we face – from the impact of plastics on the health of living things to replacing monotonous work – giving people time to live life more fully.
This cannot and will not happen under the current system. But oppressive systems have been changed throughout history. Tens of millions of people are questioning the use of AI. Opposition to AI alone will not bring about the kind of society we need. But in the process of challenging the rights of the billionaires to destroy our environments and our lives, it can bring more people to think about the need for a different way to live. We can be a part of that. Our town hearings and demonstrations can be a place to start building the connections needed to take control of our future.
