Update - Observatory of Planetary Justice Impacts of AI
A new batch of case studies has been added to our Observatory of Planetary Justice Impacts of AI!
The effects that AI is having on our planet seem to be more stark in areas populated by the global majority - part of our mission is to map how the AI supply chain follows colonialist patterns in extracting resources from the majority to benefit the global minority. However, it is still crucial to map how adverse consequences expand to affect the global minority, and while so far we had included a few studies of Disposal/End-of-life in Western and Central Africa and in Southeast Asia, we have now seen how toxic waste is present in Europe as well. Phoebe Weston reported for the Guardian on a disused mine in Alsace containing “mercury, arsenic and other heavy metals as well as cyanide and residues from household waste incinerators.”
We have also seen a lot of reporting on data centres, which of course play a key role both in Model Training and Model Deployment. Where Cloud Meets Cement, a new report from The Maybe, follows 5 cases across the world in which data centre construction has met resistance from the community, highlighting successful strategies in Chile, the USA, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Mexico. The new research on Querétaro, Mexico, adds to the body of work already included in the Observatory, mapping how water consumption is increasing difficulties for indigenous communities. A Microsoft data centre is also being investigated in Mekaguda - a village in Telangana, India - where the community “claim that Microsoft has illegally occupied land beyond the boundaries of its property and dumped industrial waste into a nearby lake,” as reported by Rest of the World.
Data centres are increasingly coming under scrutiny in the US, where a great majority of them is located. Reports from the nonprofit More Perfect Union investigate how life is impacted for people who live very close to data centres, in Georgia and Tennessee. Residents report higher electricity and water bills, effectively subsidising profits for the tech companies that have built these data centres. Reporting is increasing on xAI’s presence in Memphis, Tennessee, where Elon Musk is accused of building “as many as 35 methane-burning turbines clustered around the factory buildings that are entirely unpermitted,” reports Willy Blackmore. Emissions from the Colossus facility include ground-level ozone, which is an asthma-causing pollutant, as well as formaldehyde, a known carcinogen. These are concentrated in the predominantly Black neighbourhood of Boxtown. Shakil Khan also reports that the illegal turbines “which burn fossil fuels 24/7, emit nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide, particulate matter, and other harmful pollutants.”
We want to emphasise that the Observatory is a collective repository, and that we are always looking for submissions of case studies. We cannot possibly map the planetary justice impacts of AI without help - it is a community-led, adaptive data collection effort. If you come across case studies similar to these, please submit them here.