u/My_Concept

I’m protesting an AI data centre being built in the next town over so I made an extremely silly music video to help spread the word. Shoutout to my fiancé for letting me use his living room and top hat. 🎩

If you’re curious, the video is here and the accompanying campaign site is here.

A la The Cardboard Stegosaurus from a few years ago

The petition on change.org

I found out this month they’re building an AI data centre in Blackpool and no one I talk to in the area seems to have heard about it!

I’ve read through all the marketing materials and the details leave much to be desired. They boast about ‘ethical data’ and access to a ‘heat network’ without explaining how it will work, and from what I can see our MPs don’t really know how it’s meant to work either.

Unfortunately I only found out about it after the planning permission had gone through and the project is now in a ‘mandatory standstill’ period until 1st October.

I’m doing what I can to raise awareness but if it gets built (as it probably will) at least I can maybe warn other people to look out for similar projects in their area. Stay on the lookout for planning permission of this kind! I was able to access Blackpool Council’s planning portal to find this one.

The petition only has a few signatures so far but it’s gone up by several hundred in the two weeks since I found out about it. Click here if you want to help.

Thank you 🙏

[Pictured: slice of my dad’s birthday cake]

I’m in the UK, so my concerns about AI data centres are a bit different to others in the US right now, but my story goes like this.

A bit over a week ago I got an email digest from Change.org with a petition protesting the construction of an AI data centre in the town neighbouring mine. I immediately read through it, shocked because I’d never even heard of this project, and I’ve been following the AI thing pretty consistently. In fact, no one I’ve spoken in the local area seemed to have a clue it was happening.

The petition only had a few hundred signatures and I had no way to contact the person who started it, so I went through a few hours of feeling overwhelmed and numb. Like, the beast has made it to my door and I’m too late to do anything about it because all the planning permission has gone through. I felt alone and powerless.

The marketing goes on and on about how ‘energy efficient’ it will be and how my area will become the home of ‘ethical data’ but there’s barely any explanation about how it’s all going to happen. I’ve scoured sources online and only come up with one badly rendered diagram about a possible ‘heat network’ that looks like it was made by AI because there’s house with like 16 windows. 😂

So after my few hours of being a sad girl I decided I needed to do something about it, even if all I can do is express my displeasure. I ended up writing, recording, and filming a music video for, an extremely silly and camp protest song to the tune of ‘I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside’, which is like the unofficial theme tune of the town in question.

I know it’s likely the thing will get built anyway, but I want the record to show that I did my due diligence and asked hard questions of the people who are meant to be acting in our best interests.

I have until 1sr October to ‘campaign’ (if you could call it that) because the contract is currently in what’s called a ‘mandatory standstill’ until everything is finalised. I’ve made short vertical videos to post every day between now and then. With any luck I can at least raise awareness of what’s going on any maybe inspire people from other parts of the country to find out what their own councils are trying to sneak through unnoticed.

Wish me luck 🙏

A 6MW AI data centre is going to be built in Blackpool with promise of locals benefitting from a ‘heat network’ that uses waste heat from the data centre to heat houses and businesses. There is very little information in the marketing materials about precisely how this will work, and whether or not old houses will qualify, or indeed who will pay for installation.

I tried emailing my council but they have not yet replied. I have a HVAC engineer buddy and he said generally heat networks are going into new apartment buildings rather than existing housing.

Has anyone got any insight into how this might work or is my council talking out of its backside to try and shove this plan through?