Editor’s note: We are grateful to the editorial team of the 2026 New York State Poor People’s State of the State Report for permission to to reprint an excerpt from the report here. Though the following piece focuses specifically on policy priorities and data center construction and resistence in New York State, we believe any reader will find relevant information for reflection and use in local struggle, as the effects of AI are everywhere.
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Excerpt, 2026 New York State Poor People’s State of the State Report, page 18.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the center of economic investment today. AI and other digital technologies anchor the “fourth industrial revolution,” in which every industry, from manufacturing and agriculture to retail and customer service, is being transformed.
Governor Hochul wants New York to be a global hub for advanced chip production and AI innovation. With proper regulations and under democratic control, these technologies could unlock a future of abundance for all. But as it is now, they are controlled by a handful of the wealthiest billionaires and corporations and are used primarily for private profit, military supremacy, propaganda, and social control. AI replaces human labor everywhere it is employed, concentrating extreme wealth for a few, impoverishing the rest of us, and endangering the planet.
Despite all we hear about “the cloud,” AI must take physical form somewhere, and that is in data centers. Data centers are warehouses full of computer servers, chips, and equipment that not only store our photos and emails, but also run AI large language models, manage cryptocurrencies, and support military strikes against Gaza, Venezuela, and more.
Investment in data center technologies are sky-high even though it is not clear how AI will ever make a profit. Communities all over the country where data centers are proposed are organizing, demanding to know more about the potential consequences.
Data centers require enormous amounts of water, are heavy polluters, and tend to be sited in high-poverty areas. They use so much electricity that the increased demand on power grids raises everyone’s energy bills.
As of January 2026, New York State has seven operating data centers using 123 megawatts (MW) of electricity. Centers being proposed now would increase this tenfold. A data center in Genesee County in Western NY could use 500 MW. Another in Tompkins County in Central NY faces a lawsuit after initial permitting was granted to use up to 400 MW more.
Members of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation are leading the resistance to the Western New York Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park (STAMP), an industrial park considering a massive data center on 1,200 acres of wetlands and grasslands that border the Seneca reservation and on ancestral Seneca lands.
According to some initial experiences around the country, fights against data centers have potential to bring people together across traditional lines of division, advancing politically independent organizing.
