We speak with tech journalist Paris Marx about his new book, Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech’s Data Empires. In the book, Marx exposes the deceptive ways tech companies are taking resources from vulnerable communities in order to build massive AI data centers. “We have seen the tech companies that, back in 2019, 2020, wanted us to see them as climate leaders … completely throw their targets out the window in order to pursue generative AI and this data center buildout,” says Marx. He notes that after failing to connect to electrical grids in the locations where they were building data centers, some AI companies have pivoted to building “on-site gas plants,” further increasing dependency on fossil fuels.
Tech companies “want us to believe” that AI models are “starting to become so powerful that within 10 years they could decide that they want to wipe out humanity or a significant chunk of humanity,” says Marx. “That is a mix of science fiction and delusion … and it is also a very effective way to distract from the real harms that we’re seeing from these generative AI products.”
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