Roz Foyer: What’s in the AI data centre explosion for working people?

WHAT’S the point of growth if working people don’t share in it? We are asking that question about artificial intelligence and the hyperscale data centres increasingly being proposed across Scotland.

AI is here to stay whether we like it or not. It remains to be seen whether this is a bubble that’s poised to be burst, but the explosion of the technology is permeating our homes, our workplaces and our communities and, in all honesty, it’s not going away.

Used properly, it could help tackle some of the greatest social, economic and environmental challenges we face. It could – and I stress could – enhance public services, advance medical procedures and streamline work processes that allows workers to regain control over their work/life balance.

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But technology is not inherently progressive. It depends entirely on who owns it, who controls it and how the wealth it creates is distributed.

That is why the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) approaches the explosion of AI and the vast data infrastructure required to power it through a simple prism – what is the economic, social and worker benefit for the communities being asked to accommodate it?

We need to know what these gargantuan and largely soulless buildings, increasingly proposed for Scotland’s towns, cities and landscapes, will deliver for working people.

Where are the good jobs? Where is the lasting economic growth? Where are the productivity gains that improve people’s lives rather than simply propping up the profit margins of tech companies and Silicon Valley tech bros.

Crucially, where are the safeguards to ensure environmental concerns and the voices of local communities are not simply ridden roughshod over in the pursuit of growth for an undefined purpose.

These questions become even more pressing when considering the scale of what is being proposed. There are currently dozens of hyperscale data centre developments at various stages of consideration across Scotland.

Yet the planning and regulatory systems expected to scrutinise them have themselves been weakened by years of cuts to local government.

Since 2010, 12,000 jobs have disappeared from Scotland’s councils. That means fewer planners, environmental specialists and other public servants available to provide the rigorous checks and balances developments of this scale demand. The Cato development in Fife is a case in point. Research by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre has illustrated the extraordinary scale of the project, which could cover around 280,000 sq m and rise to 35m – equivalent to a 12-storey block of flats.

A development on that scale cannot simply be waved through on the promise of investment. The key question is: investment for whom?

The business lobby insists Scotland must race ahead or risk missing out on economic growth. But growth is not a magic word.

Growth that creates enormous profits while delivering few secure jobs, overwhelming infrastructure and sidelining communities is not good enough.

If only a fraction of the investment remains in the local economy, while major contracts, equipment and profits flow elsewhere, communities are left fighting for the crumbs from the table.

Scotland has been here before. We have enormous renewable energy potential, yet too often a lack of coherent industrial strategy has allowed multinational corporations to extract value while Scotland misses out on the manufacturing, supply-chain opportunities and secure jobs that should accompany such investment.

We cannot afford to repeat that mistake with the infrastructure underpinning the AI revolution. Nor can we ignore the enormous questions around energy and environmental impact.

Scotland needs an honest assessment of what our electricity network can sustain, what infrastructure must be built and who ultimately pays for it.

Homes, hospitals, schools and existing businesses cannot be expected to bear the consequences of poorly planned development.

THEN there is the question of jobs. Construction can and should create substantial employment but only if there are enforceable requirements to maximise local employment, apprenticeships, Scottish supply chains and collective bargaining.

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We cannot accept a model based on transient labour, insecure work and workers being moved from site to site before being discarded once construction is complete.

Nor should communities be sold fantasies about permanent employment if operational sites ultimately require only a relatively small workforce.

Thus, this is not an argument against data centres, per se. It is an argument for using the advances in technology and AI for the public good. The question is not whether Scotland should embrace technological change. It is whether we have the power and political courage to shape it.

That requires a national strategy for hyperscale data centres, rather than a race to the bottom. It requires government, local authorities and trade unions to have a meaningful role in deciding where and how developments proceed.

It means planning decisions must be underpinned by strict Fair Work conditionality, genuine local community benefit, strong environmental safeguards and commitments to Scottish jobs and supply chains.

We also need to consider digital sovereignty – who owns and controls the infrastructure and data on which our future economy increasingly depends?

AI can be a force for enormous good – but only if we reject the idea that its development must be left to the whim of tech giants and their investors. Before another spade goes into the ground, the Scottish Government must ensure the guardrails are in place.

There is a world in which data centres help deliver good jobs, stronger communities, technological capability and solutions to the challenges facing society. But that outcome will not happen by accident. It will happen through the work and endeavour of Scotland’s workers, backed up and reinforced by our trade union movement.