About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of Meta's $13 billion data centre in Alberta and its impact on Canada's economy and digital sovereignty.

Danielle Smith announces a $13 billion Meta data centre in Sturgeon County, Alberta, set to be the largest in Canada. In contrast to Carney’s federal A.I. strategy, which promised clean, sovereign, and ethical A.I.,  Smith refers to the Meta project as a “digital refinery,” fuelled by a natural gas plant that will be built to power it.  Instead of digital sovereignty, is Canada going to end up being a branch-plant, resource economy at the service of Big Tech?  Plus, the best Canadian films you probably haven’t seen, and Big Tech’s new hiring target: philosophers.  Host: Jesse Brown Credits: James Nicholson (Producer), Kallan Lyons (Associate Producer and Fact Checking), Caleb Thompson (Mixing and Mastering), Tristan Capacchione (Senior Production Supervisor), Jesse Brown (Editor) Guest: Douglas Soltys Further reading:  Big Tech joins Calgary Stampede oil bash, as Alberta courts data centres | CBC News   Meta to build $13 billion data centre in Alberta, largest outside the U.S. | Globalnews.ca   'Responsible corporate citizen:' Meta, Premier Danielle Smith defend $13B Alberta mega data centre plan - Edmonton Journal Supersized data centres are…

People in this episode

Host: Jesse Brown

Guest: Douglas Soltys

Topics covered

• data centres
• Big Tech
• Alberta economy
• digital sovereignty
• AI strategy
• Canadian films
• philosophers in tech

Keywords

• Meta
• data centre
• Alberta
• Danielle Smith
• Big Tech
• digital refinery
• AI strategy
• Canadian films
• natural gas

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Meta, Big Tech

Places: Alberta, Sturgeon County

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