May 13, 2026 | As the "supercharged" construction of new data centers to power artificial intelligence blankets the country, a growing resistance movement to these massive corporate projects amid a lack of public oversight is not far behind. As organizer Astra Taylor explains, local fights across the country are leveraging this "industry chokepoint" to force important questions, from the distribution of land, water and energy resources to democratic governance over an industry currently driven by a "billionaire Big Tech agenda." While AI boosters frame the technology as inevitable, Taylor says, "I think that many people are more skeptical than that. … That's part of what it means to have democratic governance over AI, to say, 'No, we don't need this technology to take over every facet of our existence.'"
