More compute for a burning planet

Talk by Fieke Jansen, assistant professor, Media Studies department and a co-principal investigator, University of Amsterdam.

We are living in an ecological crisis. Devastating heat waves, storms, and fires remind us of how human activity impacts the planet and all life on it. Yet, policymakers and industrial leaders continue to bank on the promise that technology will save us in some distant future, ignoring the direct environmental impact of this industry and delaying critical action on proven climate solutions.

In this talk, I will argue that data centres are the Achilles heel of the AI industry. The unbridled expansion of data centres to meet the needs of AI is leading to resource conflicts around the globe. The economic logic that those with the deepest pockets can secure privileged access to critical raw materials, land, water, and energy is increasingly met with fierce resistance and declining trust in technology companies and political leaders alike.

I’ll start by unpacking the infrastructural ideologies that underpin Europe’s technology policy, that of economic growth through the infinite expansion of data centres and mitigating environmental harms through narrowly defined sustainability efforts that are tech solutionist at heart. I’ll conclude by exploring pathways towards non-extractive, restorative, and regenerative infrastructural practices. Rather than blindly investing in more, bigger, and faster computing, Europe needs to rethink what technological progress is for and who it should serve. This means recentering people and the planet over profit and control in the governance of technology and AI infrastructures.

Bio

Fieke is an assistant professor at the Media Studies department and a co-principal investigator with the critical infrastructure lab at the University of Amsterdam.

Her research interest is to understand how the material impact of expanding infrastructures is shaping the management, distribution, and depletion of natural resources. She is part of the 'Sustainable AI Futures' research project, led by professor Samantha Walton, Bath Spa University and is a strategic advisor of the Green Screen Coalition. Fieke did her PhD at the Data Justice Lab of Cardiff University and is a former Mozilla and Green Web Foundation fellow where she explored ways to frame the climate crisis as a core digital rights issue.