A weekly (or more, or less) round-up of interesting links and sources regarding struggles and victories against AI and its ilk. We try to start with a “Yay!” but follow up with nays.
If you have any tips, get in touch with us!
Author Sally Rooney just defeated a data center.
From Dan Sheeran at lithub.com. The planning permission was overturned after the author objected to the planning permission on the grounds that it breaches Irelands climate policy. More specifically the construction plan could not demonstrate it had a PPA with a renewable energy supplier nor a plan for on-site renewables.
https://lithub.com/sally-rooney-just-defeated-a-data-center/
Forever chemicals like PFAS the solution to data center water-usage concerns.
“The boom in AI tech was leading demand, with Pfas used for “eco-friendly” datacentre cooling and in various stages of semiconductor manufacturing.”
NOYB: EU Member States plan “digital expropriation” of Europeans in the interest of AI companies
“With support of Germany and other EU powerhouses, it is currently proposed, that, when using personal data “in the context of AI”, companies are generally permitted to do basically anything. The commercial interests of AI companies should generally trump the fundamental rights of users. This general allowance would also apply to individuals who have never been customers of an AI company, or to data entered decades ago, for example in chats or on social media. All personal data that an AI company can somehow get its hands on would fall under the provision. There is no need to ask users for consent – companies are automatically assumed to have an overriding “legitimate interest” if they train or use any AI product.“
https://noyb.eu/en/ai-eu-member-states-plan-digital-expropriation-europeans-interest-ai-companies
AI hallucination of Chinese nuclear components almost led to US military attack
“That erroneous intelligence, submitted by a US Special Operations Command analyst, suggested the Chinese ship was transporting nuclear arms program components through the Middle East, according to “four sources familiar with the episode” cited by CNN. The US military was preparing to intercept and board the ship, with air support, before officials discovered a chatbot used in generating the report had “inaccurately identified the material the ship was carrying.” One source told CNN the AI-powered fiasco “almost started a war.””
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/09/report-us-almost-boarded-chinese-ship-over-hallucinated-ai-arms-report/