On Friday May 22, they gathered—researchers, labour organizers, environmental groups, Indigenous leaders, tech workers, grassroots activists opposing data centres; about 270 individuals all together. The occasion was the Civil Society Summit on the AI Industry, convened by the Council of Canadians to confront the unprecedented convergence of money, political power and technological awe that a handful of techno-oligarchs control.
AI refers to a range of technologies. It is, however, better understood as a political project for reshaping the planet and concentrating power in the hands of the billionaire class—one fueled by a carefully-cultivated narrative of inevitability. As one intervenor put it, you don’t attract $7 trillion in investment for a productivity tool that helps you write form letters. This is a play for power on a planetary scale.
The Summit was convened to hold both the upstream (mining, water, climate) and downstream (societal harms, labour disruptions, surveillance) harms of AI, — and to do so while centring humanity and relationality.
Over the course of a full day, attendees flocked to three sets of three simultaneous panels. A total of 12 lively and informative discussions unfolded over the course of the day, but perhaps most valuable were the connections and future collaborations that took root in hallways, self-directed caucuses, and in the downtown Montreal sun outside the Centre St-Pierre.
Our facilitators invited honesty and curiosity in times of disagreement, laughter in unexpected moments, and even led us in song.
In the span of a single day, the summit held:
- A historical lens of the AI industry as a colonial marketing project turned empire, and what is already happening to push back.
- Artists and media workers asking what gets lost when cultural production and information gets automated.
- Farmers and food sovereignty advocates naming what Big Tech’s enclosure of agriculture means for communities.
- Indigenous data sovereignty scholars insisting on the right to govern their own peoples’ information.
- Environmental and climate justice advocates — including Chief Sheldon Sunshine of Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation — tracing the real cost of “the cloud” on land, water, and bodies.
- Researchers, lawyers, and advocates working to end digitally-facilitated gender-based and sexual violence.
- Immigration lawyers and community organizers documenting how algorithmic systems are being weaponized against migrants.
- Union reps and worker co-op members holding the line on worker rights and dignity in the age of automation.
- Tech accountability experts naming the concentration of corporate power that makes the AI empire possible — and asking what becomes possible when everyday people, especially racialized youth, are engaged in designing AI.
- Disarmament advocates asking us to reckon with algorithmic warfare and autonomous weapons systems — not as a future scenario, but as tools already being wielded by states to kill and harm.
Sometimes the intangible felt sense of a gathering — what some call the “warm data” — doesn’t make it into the formal record. But we want to make it legible.
It also wasn’t all deep agreement. Debates arose about the role of the Canadian state (colonial agent or potential progressive actor?) approaches to technology (ban generative AI or heavily regulate?) and orientation to data centres (pause everything or impose requirements?). The difference wasn’t flattened; our shared concerns (and some deft facilitation) held our divergences. Weaving a web as large as the sprawling project of AI itself, momentum and solidarity emerged on the other side.
This summit was a beginning. A first step toward undermining the narrative of an inevitable machine-led future. As the billionaires move to consolidate control, movements move to build networks of solidarity. Stay tuned for more and get in touch if you want to get involved.
The Civil Society Summit on the AI Industry was organized by the Council of Canadians. For more information, contact us.
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