danmcquillan

We don't need sovereign hyperscale data centres because we don't want them or the shoddy tech that depends on them. What we do need is a democratic control of our energy and water resources that orients towards sustainability. Goodbye Thames Water, and take Anthropic with you!

It's not that AI agents will multiply our power if only we can constrain them from doing unexpected and unwelcome things, but that their frustrating unreliability reflects the broader point of all AI, which is to strip us of agency altogether.

The inexorable materiality that's been
Dragged into existence by dreams of AGI
Backpropagates through an imperial state capitalism
That obsesses about supply chain control and rare earth minerals
Amidst the collapse of a so-called rules-based order

[notes for a talk]

"The aspect of AI which sabotages it in social settings, its tendency to generate collateral damage through out-of-distribution errors & so-called hallucinations, ceases to be a problem in conflicts where maximum indiscriminate damage is the actual point" https://zenodo.org/records/18908530

My paper also focuses on AI's overlap with energy & water utilities but points the other way; at reclaiming them as resources for the common good. (Also: abolish AI). https://zenodo.org/records/18908530

FFS Bernie, repeating a lot of doomer bullshit as a reason for a data centre moratorium is terrible technopolitics. Don't stop the build-out because this is an AI revolution but because AI is a symptom of the same old shitty, broken system. We don't need to be afraid, just angry.

My public online talk next Fri 20th March 5pm GMT hosted by the Starling Centre for Just Technologies and Just Societies is titled 'AI is a Morbid Symptom of the Interregnum' and will also make the case for decomputing. Details and signup here: https://www.uwo.ca/events/2026/03/ai-is-a-morbid-symptom.html

[now with url!] A short-ish chat with Iliana Depounti from the 'Sustainable AI Futures' project covering fun stuff like why LLMs are a cyberattack on higher education and why we should interpret AI as a diagnostic for a deeper underlying crisis of legitimacy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv0XeNm0P2I&list=PL5qc67og7YDONpeoZV1XTbKzNF7OXb8Za&index=6

https://www.instagram.com/p/DVr6GFuiHdk/

New preprint from me: 'AI, Decomputing and the Interregnum' https://zenodo.org/records/18908530 - "This paper treats AI as a diagnostic for deeper, nihilistic changes in the existing order of things. It proposes instead decomputing as a decisive turn towards infrastructuring the common good."

New preprint from me: 'AI, Decomputing and the Interregnum' https://zenodo.org/records/18908530 - "This paper treats AI as a diagnostic for deeper, nihilistic changes in the existing order of things. It proposes instead decomputing as a decisive turn towards infrastructuring the common good."

"AI is a morbid symptom of the interregnum" https://danmcquillan.org/ai_is_a_morbid_symptom_of_the_interregnum.html [0/7]

https://www.instagram.com/p/DEek40YOoRC/

What's great about 'Resisting AI' being the AI Skeptics Reading Group's current text is the feeling of being part of a growing movement ✊🏻 Shout out to organiser @ali@masto.al2.in https://buttondown.com/ai-skeptics-reading-group/archive/ai-skeptics-resisting-ai-week-1/

"Our conversation with Dan McQuillan will examine the political stakes of AI, asking what can and should be done". Livestreamed Friday 12 EST/5 GMT on YouTube with audience Q&A. https://www.youtube.com/live/wi0u3Hs6jGU

Call for Papers - The Politics of AI: Governance, Resistance, Alternatives https://www.criticalinfralab.net/preview/?id=1164
We invite proposals for our symposium that offer critical perspectives on AI & environment, AI & society, and the political economy of AI. Please share widely!