ℹ️ Please note that the event will be held in a hybrid format.

Overview

Sanjana Paul discusses data centres, public health, environmental justice, and how policy can respond.

The rise of generative AI has resulted in a rapid expansion of data centres globally. While data centres are mostly presented as a need and a progress, they lead to a tremendous impact on the environment, social inequalities, and human and planetary health. Seeing how the growth of AI is celebrated, while its social and environmental harms are overlooked or ignored, can feel demoralising. How can we instead focus on positive action and proactive thinking? In this new event series, we are going to explore the question of “How do we?..”, with regards to research and policy on digital technologies. In our first event in the series, in conversation with Sanjana Paul, we shall discuss the following: How do we consider data centres from the perspective of health and environmental justice? How do we engage with and challenge policy around digital innovation, AI and data centres, to centre the needs of people, communities, and the planet?

Sanjana Paul is an engineer, environmental justice researcher, and systems thinker working at the intersection of infrastructure, climate, and technology. She is a PhD student at MIT, where her research focuses on renewable energy, energy justice, data centres, and the electric grid. She is the co-founder of Rooted Futures Lab, a research and action collective advancing environmental justice in technology, and Earth Hacks, a nonprofit harnessing hackathons as a form of climate action. Sanjana’s work has ranged from atmospheric science software engineering at NASA to passing decarbonization policy at the local level. She holds a BS in electrical engineering and physics from VCU and a Master’s in City Planning from MIT.