Ben Jennings on the Rise of Datacentres in Britain – Cartoon

# Ben Jennings on the Rise of Datacentres in Britain – Cartoon ## The Government Doesn't Know What They're Being Used For? I Find That Extremely Funny I find the statement that the UK government does not know what many of the country's datacentres are being used for extremely funny. Not funny in the sense that it is amusing, but funny because of the extraordinary contradiction behind it. We are constantly being told that Britain must build more datacentres. We are told they are essential for artificial intelligence, economic growth, national security and Britain's technological future. Well, we can take national security out of that equation, because the systems and infrastructure that house this information have reportedly been hacked and compromised by individuals, including stories involving American celebrities. Yet apparently, the government cannot clearly tell the public exactly what all this computing power is actually being used for. Well, clearly you can see what they are being used for because the media is constantly reporting on it. That should concern everyone. Datacentres are currently being manipulated and used for the wrong things. We live in a world where news stories constantly report cyberattacks, international conflict, AI development, online fraud, surveillance, ransomware, hacking and increasingly sophisticated autonomous technology. At the same time, governments and technology companies are racing to build more powerful computing infrastructure than ever before. Scary! So surely the obvious question is not simply: "How many datacentres do we need?" The more important question is: **What are they being used for, who controls them, and who is responsible now that this technology is being abused?** Datacentres are being used for something sinister. Although datacentres support hospitals, banking, communications, education, scientific research, public services and the internet itself, and yes, they seem to be an essential part of modern society, they are also currently being abused. The same powerful computing systems that can develop medical research can also potentially be used for surveillance. Artificial intelligence can help identify diseases, but it can also be used to create convincing fake images, automate cyberattacks or spread misinformation. Computing infrastructure can support peaceful technologies, but advanced computing is also increasingly important to military systems, autonomous weapons, drones and cyber warfare. This is currently what is happening with the wars we are seeing today. That does not mean every datacentre is responsible for every problem in the world. It means we should stop pretending that computing infrastructure exists in some politically neutral vacuum. The irony is impossible to ignore. We are living through a period of extraordinary global instability. Multiple wars are taking place simultaneously. Countries are reporting increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. Artificial intelligence is developing faster than governments appear able to regulate it. People are concerned about online exploitation, deepfakes, fraud, hacking and the misuse of technology. Meanwhile, Britain is building enormous facilities designed specifically to provide unprecedented amounts of computing power. And the government says it does not know exactly what much of that infrastructure is being used for. Or perhaps those using it for sinister reasons want the government not to know what it is being used for. Could this be another form of misinformation and reverse psychology? Either way, none of it is reassuring. Imagine applying the same logic somewhere else. Would we accept the government saying it was building hundreds of power stations but did not know who would use the electricity? Would we accept airports being expanded without knowing what aircraft would be operating from them? Would we accept major chemical facilities being constructed while regulators simply said they did not know what was being produced inside? That's probably going on too. However... Yet somehow, when it comes to datacentres, we are expected to accept that the infrastructure should be built first and the questions can come later. Perhaps that is the real joke behind Ben Jennings' cartoon. The government appears desperate to win the artificial intelligence race without fully understanding the track it is running on. Datacentres are the problem. Technology is the problem too. It is problematic to build powerful infrastructure without having sufficient transparency, accountability and public oversight. Before Britain continues filling the country with datacentres, perhaps we should ask some basic questions. What exactly are they being used for? Who owns the computing power? Who is using it? What safeguards are in place? How much energy and water are being consumed? What happens when the technology being developed or hosted is abused? And perhaps most importantly: **Why is the public expected to accept the consequences of infrastructure that even the government admits it does not fully understand?** Because if nobody can answer those questions, then the rush to build more datacentres begins to look less like technological progress and more like blind faith. And blind faith has never been a particularly good strategy for managing powerful technology.