In contrast to Carney’s federal A.I. strategy, which promised clean, sovereign, and ethical A.I.,  Smith refers to the Meta project as a “digital refinery,” fuelled by a natural gas plant that will be built to power it. 

Instead of digital sovereignty, is Canada going to end up being a branch-plant, resource economy at the service of Big Tech? 

Plus, the best Canadian films you probably haven’t seen, and Big Tech’s new hiring target: philosophers. 

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: James Nicholson (Producer), Kallan Lyons (Associate Producer and Fact Checking), Caleb Thompson (Mixing and Mastering), Tristan Capacchione (Senior Production Supervisor), Jesse Brown (Editor)

Guest: Douglas Soltys

Further reading: 

• Big Tech joins Calgary Stampede oil bash, as Alberta courts data centres | CBC News 
• Meta to build $13 billion data centre in Alberta, largest outside the U.S. | Globalnews.ca 
• ‘Responsible corporate citizen:’ Meta, Premier Danielle Smith defend $13B Alberta mega data centre plan – Edmonton Journal
• Supersized data centres are coming to Canada. One province is at the epicentre | CBC News 
• Meta to build Canada’s largest data centre north of Edmonton | BetaKit
• Meta axes feature that allowed tagging Instagram users to generate AI images of them | CBC News  
• Vancouver’s Growing Anti-AI Movement | The Tyee 
• Meta’s AI Data Center Caught Leaking Deadly Bacteria Into Water Town Uses for Irrigation – Futurism 
• The Revenge of the Philosophy Majors – NY Times 
• The 100 best Canadian films ever made – The Globe and Mail 

Join Jesse Brown at the University of Waterloo for:

Campus Town Hall – Civil Conversations

7pm | July 21st, 2026

University of Waterloo

Pearl Sullivan Engineering Building

PSE 7303

Supported by Heterodox Academy

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