By Tanya Sakzewski
The global Artificial Intelligence race brings with it many promises – reshaping economic growth, innovation and competitiveness. On the other hand, it also attracts warnings of the risks to industries, jobs, communities, and humanity itself.
Tech companies and AI researchers are leading calls to slow down its development, warning that without adequate safeguards, humans may lose full control over the technology. Anthropic has cautioned that advanced AI could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity”.
But one of the biggest debates playing out in the media and communities around the world is centred on data centres – the infrastructure needed to power the technology.
The growth of data centres
The fast-growing industry needs new and large data centres to support its growth, but where to build them and their impact on communities, including vulnerable ones, have become flashpoints.
In a new report, the consultancy firm Bain forecasts that annual spending on AI infrastructure might hit 1.5 trillion US dollars by 2031. The size and cost of AI data centres is consistently accelerating, doubling approximately every 12 to 16 months. Bain notes that data centres are now “central to technology innovation, economic growth and national sovereignty”.
Large tech companies are driving investment in data centres, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), with capital expenditure of just five technology companies now larger than global investment in oil and natural gas production. The organisation’s satellite-based tracking shows AI factories have more than tripled in capacity in the past 18 months.
AI for All – or is it?
When Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his country’s national artificial intelligence strategy in June, he labelled it “AI for All”. He called achieving Canadian AI sovereignty- the ability to govern and deploy AI systems in accordance with Canadian laws and values – a national priority. But he may have a hard time convincing some communities of the need to construct them in their areas. In Alberta, which could house most of the country’s data centres, recent polling found only seven per cent support for the development of AI data centres. Just over 30 per cent strongly oppose them.
Over the border in the US, local opposition led to at least 75 data centre projects worth about 130 billion dollars being blocked or stalled in a period of just three months of 2026. President Trump says those who oppose the construction of AI data centres want to end up “backwards and poor”.
But the public is firmly opposed. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released in July found that just one-in-three Americans approve of the fast pace of data-centre construction. A Gallup poll released in May revealed that seven in 10 Americans oppose constructing data centres for AI in their local area, with almost half (48%) strongly opposed. The issue is expected to impact the November midterm elections.
Protests and opposition are erupting across the world, with governments facing the political challenge of balancing infrastructure needs with environmental and community concerns.
Environmental cost
Concerns often focus on the impact on the environment as well as energy resources, including pollution, reliance on fossil fuel energy, rising domestic electricity costs and a strain on water supplies.
According to the IAE, global electricity demand of data centres grew by 17 per cent in 2025, with energy consumption from AI-focused data centres surging 50 per cent.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 77 per cent of those surveyed in the US are concerned AI will make electricity more expensive. A paper published by Open Energy Outlook (OEO), a key research initiative at the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University, estimates that US electricity prices could rise anywhere between 6 to 29 per cent over the next several years in areas that have clusters of data centres. It also found that data centre and cryptocurrency demand could increase 2030 power sector CO2 emissions by up to 28 per cent relative to a future with no data centre growth.
A report by the Climate Council says the scale and pace of new development of data centres in Australia will shape the country’s energy system for decades to come, warning that “without additional renewable generation, storage and system flexibility that matches energy demand, the industry risks extending reliance on coal and gas, pushing up power prices, straining system reliability, and creating a material risk to national and state climate targets”.
In Ireland, data centres account for almost a quarter of all electricity used and rising demand has reignited a debate about nuclear power.
Water supplies
A 2025 investigation by Bloomberg uncovered that two-thirds of new data centres since 2022 have been built in water-stressed areas.
In Africa, plans for a new data centre in Uganda are raising questions over water use. With a varied climate, there are concerns that people living in areas with relatively frequent droughts could be impacted.
Mexico’s data centre capital Querétaro, which is in the centre of the country, is facing problems over extra water consumption. Last year, the area suffered its worst drought of a century, impacting crops and water supplies to some communities.
The challenge of AI’s environmental footprint is being framed as a governance and justice challenge, not only a technical problem.
Marginalised communities paying the price
Data centre growth is impacting many marginalised and vulnerable communities.
Friends of the Earth points out that US data centres are often being located in majority Black neighbourhoods in the south, alongside new fossil fuel power plants causing significant health impacts. It has been campaigning against a Google data centre in Uruguay that originally planned to use as much drinking water as 55,000 households.
In Ireland, analysis by the Think Tank for Social Change (TASC) found that nearly 90 per cent of data centres in the capital Dublin are in areas experiencing economic deprivation.
XDI analysis of just over 2,500 planned data centres globally warned that some of the world’s fastest-growing data centre investment hubs are also emerging as climate-risk hotspots. 154 or 6 per cent are “high risk” with South East Asia, East Asia and South Asia having the highest proportion of data centres at high risk.
In a submission to a Senate inquiry, the Australian Human Rights Commission called for the recognition of human rights challenges and environmental concerns posed by data centres. It said the location of data centres often overlaps with communities already experiencing existing environmental and socio-economic pressures, impacting housing, affordability and habitability. “Where these impacts reduce the liveability of homes, they may deepen existing inequalities in the enjoyment of the right to adequate housing”.
Indigenous community concerns
The Indigenous News Alliance reports that Indigenous peoples around the world are responding to the threat posed by data centres in different ways. While some are embracing projects for their economic benefits, others are raising concerns about the pressure on water resources and inadequate consultation.
Indigenous delegates at a UN meeting discussion said there needs to be policies to protect Indigenous knowledge from AI harvesting without consent as well as protections for Indigenous lands and waters.
As the New York Times wrote, the community backlash against the building of data centres has made Native lands an attractive destination, but Indigenous communities are divided. “That division may be even more palpable on Native lands, where outside exploitation has a long and ugly history and where technology companies see a chance for rapid development that gets past the red tape impeding projects elsewhere.”
New and growing risks
Data centres are now also targets in conflicts. Iran has bombed several in the Gulf, affecting data and businesses. According to a report by global insurance broker Howden, in 2025 alone, data centre space located within 10–15km of active global conflict zones was equivalent to 60 per cent of the total recorded across the previous five years combined. The report also found that just 20 US locations account for 80 per cent of the data centre floorspace impacted by severe tornadoes and hailstorms over the last ten years.
Who dominates the media narrative?
Many marginalised and vulnerable communities are impacted by data centres, but are their voices being included in media coverage?
Early reporting on AI tended to favour industry, government and academic voices over communities. A 2018 analysis of eight months of reporting on AI in six mainstream UK news outlets found almost 60 per cent of news articles were related to industry products, initiatives, or announcements. Thirty-three percent of unique sources across all articles were affiliated with industry, almost twice as many as those from academia, and six times as many as those from government. Right-leaning outlets tended to highlight economics and geopolitical issues, while left-leaning outlets focused on issues of ethics, including discrimination, algorithmic bias, and privacy.
The factsheet: An Industry-Led Debate: How UK Media Cover Artificial Intelligence said public discussion might benefit from news outlets moving beyond industry initiatives and sources that tend to focus on only one side, calling for increased engagement from scientists, activists and others to provide alternative and independent views on the capabilities, promises, and pitfalls of AI.
Other research since then has similar conclusions. A study on news articles published in Swiss, German, UK, and US outlets between November 2020 and November 2022, found that interest groups, citizens and law and order figures still had a marginal role in the AI debate. It said journalists could involve more actors who are experts in the field such as social scientists, philosophers, or legal scholars to enhance voices addressing ethical and moral issues related to AI.
With data centres now placing the AI debate in the middle of communities, it will be interesting to see how much representation has changed. While the voices and views of activists, locals and members of marginalised and vulnerable communities are being included in coverage, we will need to wait for more studies and analysis to discover just how much the balance has shifted.
In the meantime, as AI and data centre news coverage continues to rise, the need for more diverse voices in the debate is clear, especially as human rights, environmental and moral and ethical issues become more prominent.
