Ecosocialism 2026: Big Tech, AI and Digital Liberation

All right, so thanks comrades for, I think one's a really kind of important discussion.

In fact, artificial intelligence is one of the big kind of issues in politics right now.

There's quite a lot to say about it.

And my talk won't necessarily cover all the kind of aspects in fact over the course of writing this talk i also found there's also a number of books that have been published about it that i have also not gotten around to read yet but safe to say there is a lot of discussion about artificial intelligence and i guess green left and social science has been proud to host critical discussions like this we have had discussions going back to the ecosocial conference in 2023 we also had a session on this topic in 2024 Of course, even around then, I didn't suspect, I wouldn't have even suspected this, that there would be big, massive campaigns against mega data centres being built around Australia.

And of course, I know in the United States, I'm sure Marty will talk about there are big campaigns in the United States against these data centres, and in fact, have kind of underpinned some of the, more progressive Democrat victories, for example.

And so clearly this is a big issue that a lot of working class people are mobilizing around.

Now, I want to start off by talking about the issue of mega data centers.

So Socialist Alliance in Melbourne has adopted this position in the context of a state election, but this is a position that we will be taking to our national conference.

Socialist Alliance is opposed to the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence, AI data centres, which have been pushed by the Albanese Labor government.

And we support calls by grassroots groups for a moratorium on new approvals and the construction of new data centres until enforceable community and environmental safeguards are illustrated.

Now, I want to kind of unpack this position that social science has taken on this question.

We don't necessarily have a wholesale opposition to the technology itself, but we have to recognise that the fact that they're building these data centres, these AI data centres that have been proposed all over the country, it's not based on anything other than a pursuit for profits at the expense of the environment and workers.

Another important point to raise is all these mega data centres are being proposed and people, the general population who has to live near these data centres, they have absolutely no democratic say about or any discussion about or any safeguards for its kind of use.

Currently in Australia, There are over 90 to 270 data centers being closed, and globally, over 3,000 data centers are projected to be built by 2035.

And in response, there have been campaigns opposing data centers with residential and environmental groups very much leading the charge.

Now, people, I think we have to unpack, why are people mobilizing against these data centers? Now, there's a lot of different concerns.

There's concerns about noise and air pollution.

I happened to go to one of the data centres near West Footscray, which is just right in the western suburbs of Melbourne.

It's just a big, massive data centre.

It's just right in the middle of a residential area.

Now, I don't have any particular comments about the noise.

I didn't notice much noise.

But we know that there are residents who have been mobilising against it.

You have to live with it and find that the noise can be quite infuriating.

But the other big issue about these mega data centers is the massive amount of energy that they use.