Resistance to AI Snowballs Around the World

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Resistance to AI Snowballs Around the World

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You’ve probably heard that the AI boom is “inevitable,” but a global network of researchers, journalists, and scholars is fighting that narrative with the newly launched AI Resist List. It’s a publicly accessible, collaboratively built website that champions projects that are fighting Big Tech’s vision of AI. On today’s show, host Douglas Haynes speaks with climate communicator Heidi Lim about grassroots resistance and alternative AI futures. Big Tech companies are imposing their priorities on people and landscapes, but how people build and use AI is still very much a choice. Lim describes two of the projects that are working against the empires of AI: Media Capture Watch, which tracks Big Tech’s investment in news media, and Friends of the Congo, which brings awareness to the human costs of mining cobalt, gold, copper, and coltan to fuel the greed of the AI industry. And there are local examples of AI resistance, from the Wisconsin chapter of the Sierra Club’s AI resistance toolkit to Janesville’s recent vote against a hyperscale data center. Lim says that we should be cautious about promises that AI can solve climate change and cure cancer as current systems aren’t being used to these ends. AI companies are cozying up to the US military, promoting chatbots as alternatives to therapy, and creating “deep fakes” for which there are no regulations. Instead, groups like Climate Change AI argue that small, targeted applications of machine learning technologies are possible and wouldn’t require hyperscale data centers or generative AI. Lim points listeners to the Possible Futures section of the AI Resist List, where folks can learn about Slow AI and Te Hiku Media, which is working to restore Māori language and is managed by the Māori community. Heidi Lim (she/they) is a Bay Area-based climate communicator focused on increasing climate literacy and rooted in environmental justice. Their work on the internet puts a climate lens on topics like technology, justice, and democracy, and ultimately led her to work on resisting the AI machine, including helping to create the AI Resist List. In 2025, she published an hour-long video essay comprehensively detailing the climate risks of Big Tech AI, far beyond direct water and energy use. She holds an environmental engineering degree from Harvard University and has worked for almost a decade in clean tech and software startups. You can find her content on Tik Tok, Instagram, and Youtube. Featured image of a Google data center via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post Resistance to AI Snowballs Around the World appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

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