The AI Industry, Data Center Buildout, and How to Take Power Back

April 22, 2026 at 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

Online (Zoom)

Watch Recording

This session breaks down how the concentration of power in the AI industry is driving the data center buildout, and local, state, and federal policy strategies to push back, from AI regulation to tackling corporate capture of our democratic processes. Our organizer panel will contextualize this moment in broader histories of environmental racism and corporate extraction, and discuss strategies that frontline communities including Indigenous groups are using to contend for power. We will also demystify the technology that data centers are powering, and connect regulation of AI technologies to the need to stop the infrastructure buildout.

Speakers:

  • Dwaign Tyndal, Executive Director of Alternatives for Community and Environment
  • Ashley Nicole Leitka, Director of the Department of Sovereignty and Self-Determination at Honor the Earth
  • Andrea Reyes, Senior Organizing Strategist at TechTonic Justice
  • Amba Kak, Co-Executive Director, AI Now Institute