Fighting the "Inevitable": AI, Hyperscale Datacentres, and Resistance

"AI is inevitable.” This message rings out from our phones, our bosses, our politicians, and is used to justify the build-out of hyperscale datacentres, new surveillance technologies, and job cuts. This panel challenges that assumption, unpacking the negative impacts of datacentres, and unjust power dynamics of many AI models, and celebrating the resistance which brings power back to communities. Can we envision an alternative future in the face of this fast-moving technology?

This panel is sponsored and organised by People and Planet at University of Edinburgh.

Our speakers:

Dr Victoria Plutshack is a climate and energy specialist and freelance research consultant with expertise in technology transitions, climate finance, international development, and gender. She coordinates the No Gyle Data Centre campaign here in Edinburgh and is involved in Scotland’s national campaign for a data centre moratorium.

Dr. Hemangini Gupta is the author of Experimental Times: Startup Capitalism and Feminist Futures in India and a feminist researcher interested in studying the logics of Big Tech and the often hidden everyday worlds that uphold it. Her current research investigates how data futures are produced through political, infrastructural, ecological and human labor. Through fieldwork in the UK and India, she examines the move to building green data infrastructures and labor-chains promising fair wages and commitments to "ethical AI.” She asks critical questions about how data futures are imagined, by whom, and for whom.

Steph Wright is a freelance consultant with Harapan Consulting, and the CEO/Co-Founder of Our AI Collective. She has a diverse background ranging from astrophysics to genomics in academia, film & TV, and the third sector. A leader in, and an advocate for, ethical, inclusive and responsible AI, she was instrumental in the development and delivery of Scotland’s first national AI strategy. Steph strongly believes in the need for a powerful civic voice in the current AI discourse. Steph was recognised as one of the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics and one of the Top 10 Women in Tech in Scotland in 2023, and was named in the 2025 Digital Leaders list of the 100 most influential AI voices in the UK. She was also awarded the 2024 DataIQ Award for Data & AI For Good Champion. She is also a freelance researcher, consultant and keynote speaker.

Our chair:

Anna Komendantskaya is a MEng Civil & Environmental Engineering student at the University of Edinburgh. Also a Royal Academy of Engineering Scholar and campaigner with People & Planet, she is involved in awareness-raising efforts for the national campaign for a moratorium on hyperscale datacentres in Scotland. Coming from Fife, the issue of datacentres hits particularly close to home; this, along with her education in infrastructure and water resources, continues to motivate her to bring more people into the AI conversation. In chairing this panel, she hopes to empower more people to resist Big Tech and challenge local datacentre proposals.