"AI may transform the economy. That does not guarantee investors will earn back the sums being poured into it."

 Opinion  AI  (artificial intelligence)

The Guardian view on the AI backlash: Silicon Valley’s political power is cracking

Editorial

 

Tech stocks have lost trillions while voters have rejected the industry’s political champions. The billionaire-led boom is facing a democratic reckoning

This week’s midterms showed that the political bill for the AI boom is falling due. The Democratic sweep intensified fears over runaway spending, mounting debt and resistance to datacentres, sending tech shares tumbling. On Thursday Wall Street suffered its worst day since the pandemic as $3.2tn was wiped from markets. Anthropic, developer of the Claude chatbot, is hoping to float within the next fortnight for $1.5tn (£1.1tn), but it may not now get even a trillion dollars. The dominant AI chipmaker Nvidia saw its value crash by more than $400bn. The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, lost $113bn in two days.

While a few very rich people may be a little less wealthy, the sell-off may not be a bad thing. It brings a needed dose of reality to an industry whose spending plans and valuations depend on heroic expectations of future profits. That is a view held by many influential figures – from Goldman Sachs’ research boss to Nobel laureate Daron Acemoğlu. AI may transform the economy. That does not guarantee investors will earn back the sums being poured into it....READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/nov/06/the-guardian-view-on-the-ai-backlash-american-voters-want-a-say-in-their-future

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"Perhaps I should be terrified by this announcement from a man who, for all his sins, knows a thing or two about technology. But I’m sick of hearing about the hypothetical dangers of AI when the technology is being used to kill people today. Gates may not be directly involved in Microsoft any more, but, rather than making prophecies about the future, I’d love to hear what he thinks about the company’s role in the AI-enabled destruction of Gaza." Arwa Mahdawi

Bill Gates thinks AI could kill a billion people – but can we trust his judgment after Epstein?

Arwa Mahdawi

in The Guardian  

He knows a thing or two about tech, but what to make of the views of a man who met Jeffrey Epstein 30 times and couldn’t see what a monster he was?

The Bill Gates rehabilitation tour is in full swing. After having his carefully cultivated image tarnished by the revelation of his connection to Jeffrey Epstein, Gates lay low for a while. Now, however, the Microsoft co-founder is once again thrusting himself into the public consciousness, this time with a dire warning about AI. If left unchecked, AI could cause “a billion deaths”, Gates declared in an interview with NBC on Sunday.

Perhaps I should be terrified by this announcement from a man who, for all his sins, knows a thing or two about technology. But I’m sick of hearing about the hypothetical dangers of AI when the technology is being used to kill people today. Gates may not be directly involved in Microsoft any more, but, rather than making prophecies about the future, I’d love to hear what he thinks about the company’s role in the AI-enabled destruction of Gaza.

Another thing I’d like to hear Gates explain is why he reckons anyone should trust his judgment about anything... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/30/bill-gates-thinks-ai-could-kill-people-can-we-trust-judgment-after-epstein

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Datacenter rush will create ‘tsunami’ of discarded electronics, report says: Global push will triple toxic e-waste annually in 25 years, filling enough shipping containers to circle globe six times

Datacenter equipment won’t be designed for repair and reuse, the report projects, and would need to be completely replaced every two to five years. Photograph: Tatsiana Volkava/Getty Images

Datacentres  in The Guardian

Erin McCormick

Wed 16 Sep 2026

 

The ongoing campaign to build thousands of massive datacenters for AI will create a “tsunami” of discarded electronics, putting the world on a course to triple its annual generation of toxic e-waste in the next 25 years, a new report projects.

The electronic trash AI generates in the next 25 years could fill enough shipping containers to encircle the globe six times, it said. Yet, says the report by the non-profit environmental group Basel Action Network (BAN), there is no plan to deal with that waste – which typically contains toxics like lead, mercury, cadmium and forever chemicals, as well as valuable metals that are challenging to reclaim.

“Already electronic waste is the fastest-growing waste stream on the planet and only one-fifth is properly managed,” said Jim Puckett, co-founder of BAN, which works to see that toxic waste doesn’t end up getting dumped on the world’s poorer communities.

Experts concur. “We’re doing a terrible job of handling e-waste in the US,” said Vince Beiser, author of the book Power Metal, which details the global problems of trying to reclaim valuable metals inside electronic goods. “Some of it gets dumped overseas. Most of it just gets dumped in landfills, which is a problem because it can leach all kinds of nasty things into the water, into the soil.”

There are 4,871 new datacenters in the construction pipeline in the US, the report said, adding that, while not all are clearly designated for use by AI, many will be.

It calculated the volumes of e-waste related to computer servers used for AI, and to “the thousands of tonnes of copper, steel, concrete” for cooling, power distribution, networking and energy storage equipment needed to operate inside datacenters.

To estimate the total, the report estimated the amount of computing power analysts project will be built – totalling roughly 100 gigawatts of new capacity worldwide by 2030 alone and growing beyond... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/16/datacenters-pollution-electronics

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POWER ... a 2026 Poem by Anne Selden Annab

                  POWER

Billionaires hoard wealth in part, 

by deploying a small fraction 

of their ginormous wealth to persuade-

persuading leaders to vote for data centers 

and shape public policies 

that build Billionaire wealth 

and increasing political influence:

The VORTEX spins...

Erasing democracy.

Erasing equality.

Erasing justice.

Erasing security for most people, 

excluding, of course, the Billionaires' own personal empires-

the influencers they train, the puppets they prop up, 

the politicians they own,

the armies they build to bully US.

Massive Data Centers

hide Billionaire corruption 

and cover up Billionaire greed

in a trillion different ways...

Human history online is rewritten

bit by bit, to empower

and reward Billionaires even further.

A bloodless coup d'état

to impoverish We The People 

individually and collectively.

A global game of get get get

more wage slaves

to cook the food and clean the toilets

on the mega-yachts and in the McMansions

More wage slaves

for whatever whims and itches

the Billionaires and their

calculating Data Centers might feel.

 

 poem copyright ©2026 Anne Selden Annab

The first anti-AI protester to be jailed has a message for OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta: ‘Regain your humanity’: “It’s absolutely frightening and appalling that these CEOs and AI experts know the dangers and they are pursuing it anyway,” Kaufmyn said before she was imprisoned. “That to me is unconscionable and reprehensible.”

A protest against AI outside OpenAI headquarters in San Francisco, California, on 11 July. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Kaufmyn in front of her home in Berkeley, California. Photograph: Winni Wintermeyer/The Guardian

Wynd Kaufman, 69, chained and locked the front doors of OpenAI’s headquarters last year with members of StopAI

Robert Booth

Sun 16 Aug 2026 04.00 EDT

An activist who blocked the entrance to one of the world’s biggest AI companies is believed to have become the first person jailed for protesting against artificial intelligence as supporters dub her the “Rosa Parks of AI risk”.

Wynd Kaufman, 69, surrendered herself on Friday to authorities in San Francisco. She was found guilty by a jury for her role in an action last year that saw members of the group StopAI chain and lock the front doors of OpenAI’s headquarters in protest against the pursuit of artificial superintelligence.

The retired teacher from Berkeley, California, refused to move from a sit-in protest in February 2025 and pleaded not guilty to multiple misdemeanor charges. She was convicted in June of interfering with a business, trespassing with intent to interfere with a business, unlawful assembly and refusal to disburse a riot. On Friday, sheriff’s officers handcuffed her as fellow campaigners sang to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic (Glory, Glory Hallelujah): “Rise up, rise up and join us/Do not let the tech bros destroy us.”

“It’s absolutely frightening and appalling that these CEOs and AI experts know the dangers and they are pursuing it anyway,” Kaufmyn said before she was imprisoned. “That to me is unconscionable and reprehensible.”

She said she was willing to go to jail not because she was a martyr but because it was an “issue of sounding the alarm, challenging the system and hopefully trying to get the message out”... READ MORE   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/16/california-openai-protester-wynd-kaufman

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*Meanwhile, more than a thousand researchers at frontier AI labs this summer signed a letter warning of “a real risk that capability development rapidly accelerates beyond our ability to understand or control the resulting systems”.