This September we’re taking on the Big Tech companies that are puppeteering a massive AI data center buildout and worsening the climate crisis. We’ve talked a lot about how AI and the data centers it lives on are driving up costs, polluting our climate, and threatening communities — All to benefit the fossil fueled fascist billionaires and tech bros.
Next week is climate week in New York City – when political leaders, corporate executives, and muckity mucks of all kinds will gather ahead of the UN General Assembly. Tech companies are already lining up to make Climate Week into another giant greenwash. They want to regain some of the credibility they’ve lost as “climate conscious brands.” But recent reporting shows why the backlash against tech giants is well deserved.
We’re going to confront these corporations head-on and demand our political leaders take a stand. Join us in NYC from September 19 to 24 for the Unplug AI Week of Action. See our schedule of actions and events and sign up to take action here! Can’t make it to NYC? Click here to charge up our activism with a donation and support our direct costs related to travel, housing and the actions.
It wasn’t that long ago Silicon Valley was touting its renewable energy goals and at least trying to be perceived as a climate leader. Then came a story that AI would change the world and the world’s wealthiest men started racing towards the creation of artificial general intelligence. Big Tech’s climate pledges were replaced with plans to build data centers in communities across the country and Big Tech turned to Big Oil to power the data centers. Even worse, where once they promised that AI and big tech would help solve the climate crisis, it turns out they’re using these tools to pump more oil and gas, making the problem worse just as the global scientific consensus says we can’t afford to.
It’s no secret that big tech and fossil fueled fascism go hand in hand. At Trump’s second inauguration, the world’s richest men, Big Oil billionaires and Big Tech execs alike, lined up behind him as he was sworn into office. In that moment it became crystal clear that Big Tech, Big Oil, and the authoritarian right had aligned themselves to create a new political and economic alignment laser-focused on extracting every dollar they can from the working class. The prospect of global climate collapse and the unknown consequences of artificial general intelligence are simply not a concern to these men.
It’s a bleak state of affairs. But time and time again history has shown us that the world’s most powerful regimes are brought to their knees when the masses join together. Empires have fallen and economies have been restructured all by the hands of working people who were willing to tear down kings and stand up to their bosses. This September we’re rallying outside the offices of big tech and the fossil fuel plants they seek to reignite to demand an end to this madness. The planet is on fire as the world’s resources are being dumped into the creation of AI so a few rich men can play god.