The socio-environmental impacts of AI data centers are increasingly gaining ground in public opinion on all continents. Although they are not the only impacts, massive energy and freshwater consumption are two of the most worrying consequences. In a space where public policy is still unclear, the communities that suffer these impacts have been key in the world to question these projects.
This session is a space to discuss the options available to communities when an AI data center announces that it is setting up in their community, and thus to understand the diverse socio-environmental problems of data centers and the complexities of local and national public policies on the issue. By understanding these complexities, we can imagine new forms of technology public policy.
This session will be participatory. It will begin with a 15-minute presentation of Paz Peña's research on AI data centers in Latin America. Based on that, attendees will discuss different topics in groups, such as transparency and access to information, the power of big tech in the public policy imagination, and socio-environmental principles that should govern AI policies.
Please note that this session room has limited capacity, and attendance will be accommodated on a first-come, first-served basis
Paz Peña is a consultant and author who researches the socio-environmental impacts of digital technologies in Latin America. In 2021, Paz founded the Latin American Institute of Terraforming (terraforminglatam.net). In 2023, she published a summary of her research on the socioenvironmental struggles behind digitization in the book "Tecnologías para un planeta en llamas" (Technologies for a Burning Planet) from the prestigious Ibero-American publishing house Paidós. She is currently a Mozilla Senior Fellow 2025.