The data centre in my backyard

Welcome back and happy Tuesday,

A local celeb and 11,000 petitioners are opposing a big (150MW) data centre near my village, but this isn't just a local story.

The opposition is being organised by a national movement and mixes local concerns (traffic, environmental harm) with national and international ones (climate change, opposition to 'Big Tech'). Below, I dive into what this story tells us about the state of the AI debate.

News In Brief 🩳

Chip bank: Nvidia has put together a $500 billion package to finance the AI infrastructure buildout. It has teamed up with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR  to create “compute financing platforms” for companies to buy its chips.

Essay wars: Meta launched a new open-weight model yesterday and called for the US to compete with cheaper Chinese open-source rivals. Mark Zuckerberg set out his thoughts in an essay.

Still happening: The new AI Economics Institute, announced a month before the government changes, will remain part of The Treasury, a government spokesperson confirmed to The Morning Intelligence.

Portfolios: Health minister James Frith will be responsible for tech in the NHS, the Department of Health confirmed yesterday, but the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology is still to confirm ministerial portfolios. One big update on the civil service side, however, is Ollie Ilott who will lead the prime minister's new AI Taskforce as director general of AI in the Cabinet Office.