Episode 20: Resisting AI Data Centers, with Alli Finn and Matt Rodriguez

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[upbeat music] Welcome back to Dreaming Against the Machine. I'm your host, Adam Becker. This week's episode is a little bit different. We usually take a pretty broad approach to the mission here of dreaming about a better future at Dreaming Against the Machine, but this week we're getting really concrete and specific. This week's episode is about how to make the world and the future a better place in one very specific, concrete way. We are gonna be talking about how to fight and win against people who want to build AI data centers. And so our guests this week, Allie Finn and Matt Rodriguez, are people at the forefront of that fight here in the US and around the world. They know a lot about how to win against the people who are trying to develop these incredibly harmful and destructive and resource-intensive pieces of unneeded infrastructure that are a blight on our communities. And I will also say, I think that this is one of the most important and immediate political issues of our time. I think that the fight against the people who want to build these things is really very directly a fight against the wealthy and powerful who have a lot of money, and those of us who don't like these data centers, which according to polling, is basically everyone across the entire political spectrum, at least here in the US. And I hope that this episode is going to reach some people who don't normally listen to this show, maybe people who don't agree with me about a lot of other issues in politics. So if this is your first episode of the show that you're listening to, welcome, and let's talk about how to stop these data centers. So without any further ado, here's Allie and Matt. [upbeat music] Allie, Matt, welcome to Dreaming Against the Machine.

Thank you. Happy to be here.

Thanks so much. Really glad to be here with you all.

Absolutely. No, I'm just really glad that you were both able to make the time. Can you both introduce yourselves? I, I am afraid that if I try to introduce you, I will get some details wrong. So Allie, let's start with you.

Sure. Um, nice to be here. Uh, I'm Allie Finn. Uh, I'm here with a couple different hats. I'm a longtime organizer and policy advocate focused on the impacts, uh, of technology on everyday people. I'm here in my role with the AI Now Institute, um, which I can talk more about, and also the Data Center Working Group that Matt and I are both a part of, which is a nationwide network of folks resisting data center expansion.

And Matt?

Hello. Yeah, Matthew Rodriguez. I'm with, uh, the Athena Coalition. I'm in El Paso, Texas, and the Athena Coalition is also part of coordinating this Data Center Working Group, so supporting organizing and base building with these site fights against these data centers all across the country. And then I'm also part of a