AI backlash is growing — and tech execs know it

AI data centres are inflating a financial bubble — and even top tech execs know the bubble will burst if we don't all adopt AI, and fast, writes Patrick Brodie

To tech executives, AI will solve everything — including the climate impacts of the industry’s own data centre expansion, which requires immense land, energy, and resources. Photo: Niall Carson/PA

AI backlash is growing. However, if you listen to state and industry boosters, you’d think the fate of the world rests on AI. To them, AI will solve everything — including the climate impacts of the industry’s own data centre expansion, which requires immense land, energy, and resources.

This techno-optimism feels like gaslighting. How can these resource-hungry technologies solve problems of their own making?