Meta Alberta Data Centers and Home Compute Pilots Redefine the Grid
July 11, 2026
Hyperscale developments in Sturgeon County and Sunrun’s residential compute pilots are shifting the material burden of AI infrastructure onto local water tables and domestic energy storage. As Vancouver residents and UN regulators push for moratoriums and oversight, Meta’s emotion-tracking patents and automated moderation systems signal a deepening enclosure of both private affect and public discourse. This expansion into the intimate and the rural creates a metabolic rift where seniors find companionship in AI 'slop' while communities face the long-term environmental costs of closed-loop cooling and proprietary power plants.
-
BRIEF
Why better-off cities and towns see more benefits from data centers than rural regions
After a rush to attract data centers with incentives, more communities are pushing back against their development. AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey The fierce backlash against data centers shows no sign of easing up. Since early 2024, more than 1,200 public actions – including zoning fights, public campaigns a…
- all
-
BRIEF
Would you host part of an AI data center in your home?
A solar and home energy storage company is expanding into AI data centers, but not by building one - instead, it's offering to pay its customers to put its compute units in their homes. Sunrun is launching a pilot program for a new "distributed AI compute" program that will "place numerous compute n…
-
BRIEF
Vancouver’s Growing Anti-AI Movement
Residents are protesting and calling for a moratorium on new AI data centres. And local politicians are listening.
-
BRIEF
Older adults know AI is slop. They just like it
AI-generated singers, children, and even virtual lovers are providing seniors with comfort and companionship.
- AI governance
- media and technology
- geopolitics
-
BRIEF
Automated Moderation Is Here to Stay—Accountability Must Keep Pace
This post is part 2 in a series about automated content moderation. Read the first post here. When whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked a set of documents from Meta in 2020, among the revelations was a jarring statistic: The company’s algorithms designed to detect terrorist content incorrectly delete…
- AI governance
- structural power
- media and technology
-
BRIEF
The Language of AI Could Change How Humans Speak
Because of the way they are trained, large language models capture only a slice of human language. They’re trained on the written word, from textbooks to social media posts, and our speech as captured in movies and on television. These models have minimal access to the unscripted conversations we ha…
- Cybersecurity
-
BRIEF
Meta Patents AI Device That Tracks Your Emotions, Watches You Take Your Meds
Imagine a wearable device that records every moment of your day and makes suggestions based on your mood.
-
BRIEF
Robot Dogs, Teslas, and Rescue Helicopters: The UN AI Summit Was a Lot
Amid live coding sessions and Silicon Valley optimism, the UN’s AI for Good summit wrestled with an increasingly urgent question: Can global governance catch up before the technology races beyond its control?
-
BRIEF
Keeping cool: How Meta plans to cut down on water use at its Alberta data centre
The data centre in Sturgeon County, like other hyperscale proposals in Canada, is to use what's known as a closed-loop cooling system to keep servers from overheating. That differs from an evaporative cooling system, which requires enormous amounts of cool water that is not reused.
-
BRIEF
Meta data centre in Alberta to start up ahead of adjacent Greenlight power plant
Meta expects the $13-billion-plus data centre will be online in the next two to three years, spokesperson Stacey Yip said, adding that before the Greenlight Electricity Centre starts up in the second half of 2030, Meta has rights to connect to Alberta's grid and can tap other suppliers if needed.