In the early days of the internet, it was easy to believe that a bit more technology and connectivity would make things better. There were tangible benefits to this new infrastructure and what was happening on the web. But as it was commercialized and as the expectation of massive returns became cemented as part of the tech model, the widespread benefits have been consistently eroded and reduced to promises that never arrive just so a small number of billionaires can make out like bandits. Today, there are few fights more central to deciding our technological future and who benefits from it than the one brewing over data centers around the world.
In Data Vampires, you’ll learn more about data centers and how they really work. You’ll also hear from communities around the world where people are fighting back. Plus, host Paris Marx and his expert guests will dig into how generative AI is an accelerant on this fire and what’s driving these powerful people in the tech industry to try to foist this vision of the future on us regardless of whether we want it or whether it will even make the lives of most people any better.
We’re at a pivotal moment and we need to make sure tech billionaires aren’t the ones deciding the course of our collective future. Listen to Data Vampires today!
Episode 1: Going Hyperscale
Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are the dominant players in the cloud market. Around the world, they’re building massive hyperscale data centers that they claim are necessary to power the future of our digital existence. But they also increase their power over other companies and come with massive resource demands communities are getting fed up with. Is their future really the one we want?
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Episode 2: Opposing Data Centers
As hyperscale data centers move into communities, they come with significant water and energy demands that some are not willing to put up with. We go to Ireland, Spain, and Chile to learn about the effects of data centers on the ground and why some communities are fighting back. They’re asking whether the tradeoffs they’re being expected to make are really necessary.
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Episode 3: Sacrificing for AI
Sam Altman is clear: he’s ready to sacrifice anything for his AI fantasies. But are we? We dig into why generative AI has such extreme energy demands and how major tech companies are trying to rewrite climate accounting rules to cover how much their emissions are rising. AI isn’t just churning out visual slop; it’s also being used to transform how our society works and further reduce people’s power over their lives. It’s a disaster any way you look at it.
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Episode 4: Fighting for Control
Tech billionaires are embracing extreme right-wing politics. It’s not just to enhance their power, but to try to realize a harmful vision for humanity’s future that could see humans merging with machines and possibly even living in computer simulations. Will we allow them to put our collective resources behind their science fiction dreams, or fight for a better future and a different kind of technology to go along with it?