Opting out of the tech-backed AI inevitability narrative

Wisconsinites across the state are uniting in the struggle against the development of environmentally hazardous data centers by tech corporations, which profit off of the mass excavation of personal information.

Earlier this month, several communities united in a Day of Action Against Data Centers across multiple Wisconsin communities. Demonstrations held in Milwaukee, Madison, Kenosha, Port Washington, Janesville, and Menomonie captured common sentiment against the development of data centers in Wisconsin out of environmental and economic concerns. These sentiments cut across traditional divides and “past political boundaries,” as organizer Christine Le Jeune stated to WPR. 

As a Port Washington resident, Le Jeune is working alongside the Great Lakes Neighbors United group, a grassroots effort to hold public officials accountable and raise awareness of the environmental demand of data centers. Similar organizations have popped up in cities facing similar threats from development proposals, like the group Kenoshans Unite Against Microsoft Data Center or No Data Centers in Ozaukee County. These efforts have empowered community members to show up locally and speak out against the inflated influence of the tech corporations bringing data center plans to these communities.  

However, some local governments, like the Port Washington Common Council, are displaying allegiance to external tech investment over their own constituencies. Le Jeune, after speaking out in dissent of a Vantage Data Center development in Port Washington at a Common Council meeting, was violently arrested and forcibly removed from the building alongside two other community members on December 4.

The use of excessive force by law enforcement in order to wreak violence upon local communities under the guise of bringing law and order, has long been a staple of the United States’ so-called justice system. Under the second Trump administration, this dynamic has only rapidly emboldened and further militarized an already belligerent law enforcement. 

On top of that, this militant approach to enforcing the administration’s agenda appears to be the goal; shaving away constitutional freedoms in order to usher in authoritarian surveillance technology developed by the same corporate interests who bankrolled the incumbent administration. Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, and OpenAI are just some of the tech giants investing in the development of data centers in Wisconsin, and across the nation as the next phase in maintaining economic dominance. 

These corporations’ interests have coincided with the administration’s goals of revamping the surveillance state apparatus with the help of AI-backed tech, veiled by the amorphous bogeyman of rampant crime and social unrest. The consolidation of corporate tech and fascist policies are glaringly obvious as the AI-backed surveillance phase of the administration’s grasp on power tightens. Ultimately, these corporations are counting on the normalization of the narrative that the ubiquity of AI tech driven by environmentally-costly data centers is an inevitable future. 

But Wisconsin communities are banding together and pushing back.

As Tone Madison continues to uncover the rapid encroachment of AI in Wisconsin’s education, employment, healthcare, and just about every other institution day by day, it’s important to pay attention to where resistance is brewing statewide. The Madison community secured a relative victory with the city council and mayor’s move to enact a one-year moratorium on data center construction. However, the struggle here isn’t over.

While neighboring Wisconsinites are standing up against the top-down imposition of corporate interests, Madison still plays a crucial role in formulating a model of resistance in solidarity with wider opposition to data-center development. This means continuing to push public officials to make popular stances heard, holding them accountable when acting against shared interests, and showing up even when the issue isn’t right in our backyard—at least not yet.