Episode Details

Pennsylvania offers a particular case study in which to consider the political battle over data centers that is playing out across the United States and beyond. A new report from Data & Society, "The AI Factory: Data Centers, Power, and Resistance in Late Industrial Pennsylvania," draws on a year and a half of fieldwork across the state. It examines how boosters sell data centers by invoking Pennsylvania's industrial past, and why so many communities aren't buying the promises made by industry and politicians. Justin Hendrix spoke with Data & Society’s Maia Woluchem and Ana Carolina de Assis Nunes and People’s Tech Project’s Hannah Sassaman about its findings.