In the US midterms, data centres took a beating on state-level ballots, which delivered a resounding message to Big Tech: communities are not interested in massive infrastructure that their guzzles land, energy and water. Will it be enough to slow the pace of the "hyperscale" build out?
In this episode, Editor Adrienne Buller and Paris Marx break down the AI and data centre boom, from their thirst for resources to the fantasies of Silicon Valley scions. From the material weight of the "cloud" to the communities resisting Big Tech's intrusion into their lives, they ask how the future of the planet is bound up with the digital world.
Paris Marx is a tech journalist and host of the award-winning Tech Won't Save Us podcast. His latest book is Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech's Data Empires.