Head of IFPI says allowing AI companies access to online content would be a'huge mistake' and damage Australia's reputation While local creatives have raised constitutional issues and threatened political backlash, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), representing recording industry bodies worldwide, said its members were worried about Australia potentially agreeing to demands other nations had rejected. "Why would Australia do this? Why would a sophisticated, democratic country that has a phenomenal cultural power of its own choose to make this very odd decision and buy into the promises of a few large AI companies, and throw away their own culture and creativity?" Victoria Oakley, the chief executive of IFPI, told Guardian Australia. "I don't think Australia wants to be the weakest link in this situation, the one that believed the promises and gave in and threw creativity under the bus on behalf of everyone else. That doesn't feel very Australian to me. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email "You just need one safe harbour, because then you can train on music from anywhere in the world.

The extended project is to draw its power from the National Grid. The extended project is to draw its power from the National Grid. A datacentre company that said it would power a massive AI development near Glasgow with renewable energy has admitted that the scheme will be entirely served by the National Grid . 'It's smoke and mirrors': hope turns to fear in Scottish village chosen for AI datacentre DataVita, a key plank of the UK's AI strategy, had promised that the Lanarkshire project would draw 1GW - the equivalent output of a small nuclear reactor, or Britain's largest windfarm - from green sources. But when the Guardian raised questions about the pledge, it said the arrangement was "subject to final commercial agreements, planning, grid and consenting processes".

Fri 6 Nov 2026 13.51 ESTLast modified on Fri 6 Nov 2026 14.10 EST Activists have stormed the site of a Microsoft datacentre being built in Amsterdam, as the backlash to the social and environmental harms of the AI boom spreads across Europe. Protesters from Geef Tegengas, a Dutch direct action group, clashed with police while breaking into a construction site at Westpoort Amsterdam, where some members climbed a crane, lit flares and tied helium balloons to equipment. The action comes amid Europe-wide resistance to the rapid expansion of energy-hungry AI, with more than 100 groups involved in a two-day series of protests to demand moratoria on the construction of new datacentres. Geef Tegengas activists attach a'Genocide' banner to scaffolding at the Microsoft site. Photograph: Storm Groenendijk/Zuma Press Wire/ShutterstockThe break-in at the Dutch site, where protesters hung banners objecting to Microsoft's services to the Israeli military and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was separate from the pan-European "Stop Dirty Data Centres" campaign, which targeted the same site but whose affiliated members stayed outside the perimeter fence.

Campaigners say the environmental and social costs of the sites are too high. Campaigners say the environmental and social costs of the sites are too high. Thu 5 Nov 2026 04.00 ESTLast modified on Thu 5 Nov 2026 04.02 EST Protesters across Europe are planning two days of action against datacentres this week with demonstrations taking place in 15 countries. More than 100 groups are joining together for the "Stop Dirty Data Centres" events on Friday and Saturday. They are calling for a moratorium on large projects, citing environmental and social costs that "we can no longer afford".

Members of the Save Brick Lane campaign protested against the construction of an AI datacentre in the east London neighbourhood in June. Members of the Save Brick Lane campaign protested against the construction of an AI datacentre in the east London neighbourhood in June. The UK's policy on datacentres and AI was developed without any meetings with environmental groups, an investigation has found. The nonprofit organisation Spotlight on Corruption said a "considerable revolving door" shaped the government's development of "AI growth zones", a central plank of the former prime minister Keir Starmer's AI and economic policy, with 38 ministers, senior civil servants and special advisers hired to positions in AI companies between July 2024 and September 2026. Meanwhile, even as top officials left government for jobs at OpenAI and Anthropic, government departments largely failed to engage meaningfully with stakeholders outside the technology industry.

Shares in Meta rose in early trading on the news. However, other companies in the AI sector found themselves under further pressure on Monday. Shares in Meta rose in early trading on the news. However, other companies in the AI sector found themselves under further pressure on Monday. Mon 26 Oct 2026 09.37 EDTLast modified on Mon 26 Oct 2026 12.41 EDT Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has announced plans for a $95bn (£71bn) fundraising to cover its AI expenditure, even as Elon Musk warned that funding for smaller players in the sector was drying up.

AI companies have told ministers they have 12 months to head off public opposition to datacentres in the UK or risk US-style protests that could threaten their construction. Successive dry summers and rising energy bills are increasing public scrutiny of plans for the huge computer warehouses that are used to train and run AI models, says a submission to the Labour government from a group including the AI infrastructure companies Nvidia, Microsoft and Cisco. Amid increasing anti-datacentre activism in the US and Europe, they are calling on ministers to create a "compact" that would show how communities can benefit from hosting datacentres, including allowing councils that host them to retain more tax revenues. The move by the Sovereign AI Leadership (SAIL) taskforce reflects rising concern among tech companies that arguments that have blocked datacentre developments in parts of the US are taking hold in Britain. Microsoft has promised to invest $30bn (£22bn) in UK AI infrastructure.

The development of a huge AI datacentre hailed by the UK government has received a fresh setback after Microsoft pulled out of the project over concerns about power supplies. The development by the British company Nscale, heralded by ministers as the country's largest AI datacentre when it was announced in 2025, was planned to open at Loughton in Essex next year. Revealed: UK's multibillion AI drive is built on'phantom investments' Doubts had already emerged about the scheme after the Guardian revealed in March that the location was still an operational scaffolding yard . Now there are further concerns after Microsoft, one of its largest planned customers and expected to have been the anchor tenant, informed the company that it was pulling the plug on its agreement. It comes a month after it emerged that power supply problems meant the project would face a lengthy wait before coming online.

The biggest threat from AI is the sense that we have no say in it. The tech bros and their highly paid sock puppets are banking on us giving in to their'inevitability doctrine'. O f all the drivers of the populist wave, one of the most powerful is the sense of inevitability that surrounds what we are told is the march of progress. While the US clings on to its status as the oldest constitutional democracy, the unholy alliance between the tech overlords and the White House is creating its own AI reality untethered to the will of the people . On the velocity and trajectory of the technology, Trump and the tech overlords have determined we must hit the accelerator and dispense with guardrails to "win" an ill-defined race to build a god in a box. This reckless exercise of power from a waning empire has created its own reality for all of us.

Google has been ordered to temporarily stop work on two datacentres in Finland after failing to do the necessary environmental impact assessments on its construction sites. The planned datacentres in Muhos and Kajanni are part of a €13bn (£11bn) project across multiple sites in northern Finland by the technology company amid huge demand for space to house online infrastructure. It comes after it emerged that Tuike Finland Oy, the company representing Google, had felled 330 hectares (815 acres) of forest in Muhos without completing an environmental impact assessment (EIA). In Kajaani, the company has reportedly been logging across just under 200 hectares (494 acres) of land. The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation said the sites had been reduced to "sand", blaming the oversights on the "overheated" market for new datacentres.