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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Archie Bland

Wednesday briefing: What does Google’s move into nuclear power mean for AI – and the world?

One of Google’s US datacentres, in Douglas County, Georgia.
One of Google’s US datacentres, in Douglas County, Georgia. Photograph: Google/REX

Good morning. If you were looking for an inkblot test for your view of big tech’s investment in artificial intelligence, you could hardly do better than the news that Google is ordering the construction of at least six small nuclear reactors to power the growth of the technology.

Here, in one view, is an enlightened business leveraging its size to invest in infrastructure that could change the world for the better. Here, in another, is a poorly regulated corporation ignoring democratic objections in the brutal race for control of an innovation with great potential to do harm – and leaving the rest of us with little say in its development.

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