From Rest of World
Individuals and communities are resisting the demands and practices of Big Tech’s AI infrastructure — such as data centers and digital labor — due to their environmental and social costs.
Adoption of artificial intelligence is on the rise worldwide, but the pace is uneven. As the global economy shifts increasingly toward AI-driven production and processes, wealthier nations are reaping the benefits faster, and poorer countries risk being left further behind, exacerbating economic and social divides, the United Nations has warned.
At the same time, Silicon Valley relies on resources in nations including Chile, Kenya, and the Philippines to develop its chips, train its AI models, and build its data centers. Workers and local communities in these countries are now pushing back against the demands and practices of big tech companies, which are resulting in enormous environmental and social costs to them, Carine Roos, a doctoral researcher at the University of Sheffield in the U.K., told Rest of World.
“Many discussions still approach AI primarily as a digital technology, but in many of these countries, AI is becoming visible through the infrastructures that sustain it: data centers, mineral extraction, energy demand, water-intensive cooling systems, and digital labor chains,” she said.
“While much of the economic value generated by AI remains concentrated in technological centres such as Silicon Valley, many of its environmental and social costs are in these territories,” Roos said. “This has prompted communities to question how these projects reshape lives and development trajectories.”
Rest of World spoke to some of the individuals and communities standing up to AI companies.
Daniela Dib is a freelance journalist based in Mexico City covering business and technology in Latin America.
Rina Chandran is a deputy editor at Rest of World, based in San Francisco.
More content from this blog
- Understanding the Rise of Afrophobia in South Africa — and How We Resist It, by Faisal Garba – 8 June 2026
- An Anti-Fascist Message from the Shadows of Central and Eastern Europe, by Czech Antifa – 8 June 2022
- Can We Still Hope for Dr. King’s Dream?, by Charlotte Rubin – 28 August 2026
- As Angry as an Algerian in France, by Nedjib Sidi Moussa – 23 April 2025
- Earthquakes and Governance: Why We Need a Gender Lens in Venezuela’s Compounding Crises, by Masaya Llavaneras Blanco – 4 August 2026
Except where noted otherwise, original writing and translations produced by the Left Renewal Blog Collective are published under a Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 licence. Republished and translated material remains subject to the licence and terms of its original publication.