Now imagine writing
these rules for everyone.
You just wrote rules for one province, with one regulator, one grid and one legal system. Alberta has an independent commission, public hearings and a documented record — and it is still difficult. Most of the world has less than that.
The same technology, completely different conditions
Alberta: gas-heavy grid, and a legal route to build your own plant.
Ireland: data centres reached a share of national demand large enough to trigger connection moratoria in Dublin.
Alberta: cold, dry, and cold enough that dry cooling works well.
Arizona and Chile: data centres compete for water in genuinely water-stressed basins.
Alberta: an independent regulator, public hearings, and a documented record.
Many jurisdictions have no equivalent public process at all.
Canada: hosting gigawatt-scale AI capacity.
Most of Africa hosts under 1% of global data-centre capacity.
Alberta: a county can register as an intervener and be heard.
Elsewhere, the company may be larger than the ministry regulating it.
The companies, chips, data, users and infrastructure all cross borders. The rules mostly do not.
Where this is being worked on
- Global Digital Compact A UN framework for digital cooperation, including AI governance and closing digital divides. United Nations ↗
- International AI governance Overlapping national, regional and multilateral efforts, none of which has full jurisdiction.
- Human rights Whose data trains the models, and who carries the environmental cost of running them.
- Sustainable development Whether AI capacity accelerates the goals or concentrates the means of reaching them.
- The AI capacity divide Compute is concentrating in a handful of wealthy regions with reliable, cheap power.
Which of these could AI infrastructure affect?
Hover or tap a goal to see the pathway.
Potentially all seventeen — some directly, most through pathways that run through electricity, water, land, materials and who gets to decide.
United Nations — The 17 Sustainable Development Goals ↗