Nova Scotians rally against planned $10B AI facility

Quite frankly, I don't know enough about AI, but I don't think that developers do either. People gathered across Nova Scotia in province-wide protest against a $10 billion artificial intelligence data center proposed for Point Tupper, Cape Breton. My biggest concern is what it's going to do to the environment, especially for the people around here. What if I can't drink the water? What if I can't breathe the air? I really don't know, and they don't know. In Port Hawkesbury, More than 150 people rallied, while in Kentville, a couple hundred more made their voices heard. We don't have a lot of trust that this government has our collective best interests at heart. It's not really making our earth better, it's taking up the water and all the things we need in our environment. And hundreds outside Province House in Halifax. As a future educator, I just can't stand to see AI being promoted and put in place of services that we really should be giving to our children. Everwind Fuels announced plans in October to build the data center. AI company Anthropic said it will sign a 20-year lease for the facility And use it to power its chatbot, Claude. Construction is expected to begin next year. What does this mean? And we're not getting those answers from our government, and that should scare people. Basically, I'm not against it as such, but I want it under control, and I'd like it under government control, not private control. We need more conversation, more community conversations about what we need, what we want for our future, what's reasonable, what is not. Any politician who sees this or is at any of these protests remembers Data centers don't vote. People do. I feel like humans are going to be left behind on this one, and we really want to be in the driver's seat of our own future. Everwind said that it welcomes all perspectives into the conversation. It said that it's developing the project in line with all federal guidelines and provincial expectations. In a statement, the province said that it accepts questions and concerns from Nova Scotians. Ben Dornan, CBC News, Kentville.