The residents of Potters Bar are working to protect the "green belt" of farms, forests, and meadows that surround London from the endless demand for AI infrastructure. A short drive from London, the town of Potters Bar is separated from the village of South Mimms by 85 acres of rolling farmland segmented by a scribble of hedgerows. In one of the fields, a lone oak serves as a rest stop along a public footpath. Lately, the tree has become a site of protest, too. A poster tied to its trunk reads: "NO TO DATA CENTRE."

Europe is trying to catch up to the United States and China in an artificial intelligence (AI) arms race. The European Commission announced last week that it would devote €1.5 billion to AI research funding through 2020. It also said it would present ethical guidelines for AI development by the end of the year, suggesting that Europe could become a precautionary counterweight to its global rivals as fears are raised about a lack of fairness and transparency in the quickly advancing field. The commission says it will fund basic research as well as research that could be spun off into the market, and it intends to help member states set up joint research centers across Europe. It also plans to update rules to ease the reuse of public sector information--including available research data.

Late on the night of October 4, 1957, Communist Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev was at a reception at the Mariinsky Palace, in Kiev, Ukraine, when an aide called him to the telephone. The Soviet leader was gone a few minutes. When he reappeared at the reception, his son Sergei later recalled, Khrushchev's face shone with triumph. "I can tell you some very pleasant and important news," he told the assembled bureaucrats. "A little while ago, an artificial satellite of the Earth was launched."