Minus AI: Reclaiming Humanity in the Age of Automation
- Kyle Crider
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
A campaign by The People’s Justice Council to center lived experience, community wisdom, and human dignity in the fight for justice
PJC’s mission is to engage and equip communities with tools and access to build power from the grassroots up for change at the policy level. Our Minus AI (-AI) campaign is a proactive response to those sacrificing people and planet on the altar of Artificial Intelligence (AI) profit. Here is how we are building power from the grassroots up to change local, state, and federal AI and data center policies:
At its heart, Minus AI builds and leverages the momentum of a simple personal choice—opting out of automatic AI summary results in web searches (“ -ai”)—and employs this collective power to demand that all major Internet search providers make AI opt-in rather than opt-out. When this happens, then the so-called need for dirty hyperscale data centers like that proposed for Bessemer, Alabama disappears. What is driving the massive AI/data center speculation bubble is the wasteful use of AI, not the needful use of AI.
But we’re doing much more than that. We want to partner with you. We want to partner with houses of faith and many other organizations to protect people and planet at all levels of policy and governance. Some of the most promising state and local AI policies from an environmental justice (EJ) perspective are those that emphasize transparency, equity in decision-making, community protection, and sustainability. States are beginning to integrate AI governance with environmental and social safeguards, ensuring that marginalized communities are not left behind.
Some Minus AI policy examples include:
Many states require clear labeling of AI-generated content and public disclosure when AI is used in government decision-making.
Toolkits like the NCSL Artificial Intelligence Policy Toolkit highlight risks of bias in education, lending, and healthcare, urging states to adopt equity-focused guardrails.
Many local governments are refusing to bow down to the false promises of data centers and implementing clear environmental justice safeguards, including rejecting data centers that are clear and present dangers to local communities.
In short: the best state and local AI policies from an EJ perspective are those that combine bias safeguards, sustainability goals, and community-centered governance.
A Big Picture and Long-Term Approach to AI and Data Centers
To be clear, PJC stands against the wasteful use of AI and harmful hyperscale data centers. However, we can cite many examples where the proper application of AI is helping solve both environmental and justice problems, and we include many such “pro” policies in our toolkit:
Louisiana is leveraging AI to model flooding risks and coastal land loss, using digital twins to simulate climate impacts and guide infrastructure planning.
AI-powered training programs are preparing residents—especially in underserved communities—for jobs in clean energy, disaster recovery, and climate resilience.
AI is helping solve some of the extremely complicated climate and energy issues its own data centers are generating.
While we must not “throw the AI baby out with the bath,” we must proceed cautiously. And there is plenty of hope to build on. For example, a special liquid immersion of heat-generating computing chips solves many of the problems associated with data center water use. And the biggest hope to reduce the massive energy and water demands of data centers is the promise of “photonic computing.” That is, when we use light (photons) rather than electricity (electrons) to compute, many of these data center problems almost magically vanish.
Won’t you join us, and build our “hope budget?”