Artificial Intelligence is being sold as progress. But progress for whom?
AI corporations are building massive data centers that consume enormous amounts of electricity, water, land and raw materials. These facilities can strain local resources while generating billions in private profits.
If AI is the future, then the companies building it should bear the full cost.
No taxpayer subsidies, special tax breaks, no publicly funded power lines, substations, pipelines, roads, or water infrastructure.
If AI companies need electricity, water, solar, batteries, or transmission systems, they should pay for them themselves.
But this debate is about more than money.
AI has the potential to reshape jobs, education, healthcare, privacy, government and human decision-making. A technology with that level of influence should not be developed solely according to the wishes of corporations and investors.
The people whose lives will be affected by AI deserve a meaningful voice in deciding whether this is a future they want.
Communities should be consulted before data centers are built in their neighborhoods. Workers should have a voice before automation replaces their livelihoods.
Citizens should have a voice before algorithms become deeply embedded in public life.
The future of humanity should not be determined by a handful of technology companies seeking profit. Before we dedicate vast amounts of land, water, energy and public resources to AI, society deserves an honest conversation about its risks, benefits, limits, and alternatives.
If AI is truly beneficial, it should withstand public scrutiny.
If AI is truly necessary, it should earn public consent.
And if corporations choose to pursue it, they should do so at their own expense — not at the expense of taxpayers, communities and future generations.
Elana Lewis, Murray