THE CRUNCH
AI companies have told ministers the UK has 12 months to head off public opposition to datacentres or risk US-style protests that could threaten their construction, according to an exclusive Guardian report. The warning came in a submission to the Labour government from a taskforce whose members include Nvidia, Microsoft and Cisco.
The group urges ministers to offer local areas greater benefits from tech infrastructure, amid fears that the huge computer warehouses used to train and run AI models will face growing scrutiny. The submission points to successive dry summers and rising energy bills as factors increasing public attention on datacentre plans.