The battle over data centers and the artificial intelligence they power has officially reached Philadelphia City Hall.
A coalition of activist groups and environmental advocates plan to gather at City Hall Monday to call on local lawmakers to pass a moratorium on data center construction in the city, the opening salvo for the group’s public pressure campaign to oppose the projects that it says could hike energy rates and drive pollution.
The coordinated push could put Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and members of City Council in a politically tricky spot as they gear up to run for reelection in the spring. Data centers have proven deeply controversial and have drawn bipartisan backlash, but some unions that see job-creating potential support their construction.
No Council member has yet said that that they will introduce a data center moratorium bill, and the mayor has not staked a position.
The activists’ event comes as fear of AI’s rapid development and increasingly human-like capabilities has spread substantially and as leaders of the nation’s largest AI developers over the weekend signaled support for a global slowdown.
On Saturday, Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei wrote that the technology is advancing more rapidly than leading companies can implement safeguards, and several of his top rivals, including Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk of SpaceX, endorsed his call for a slower pace of growth.
» READ MORE: Top AI leaders unite to warn the technology is advancing too fast
Meanwhile, talks of regulation have gripped Washington, with lawmakers from both major parties drafting plans to rein in tech companies and add layers of oversight to AI development. Any proposal faces an uncertain future, as President Donald Trump has said the country should remove barriers to AI development and accelerate advancement in order to outpace China.
On Monday morning, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform: “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!”
Inaction in Washington has left an opening for states and cities to regulate the construction of data centers, which produce the massive amount of computing power needed for artificial intelligence. They have become increasingly unpopular — a July poll found that 3 in 4 Pennsylvanians don’t want a data center in their backyard.
Municipalities in Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia, now have more power than ever to slow or halt the development of data centers. Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who is considered a potential presidential contender and who had previously courted data center projects, last month signed an executive order requiring local approval for any project to receive a state permit.
» READ MORE: In a major shift, Gov. Josh Shapiro restricts data center development in Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is already home to eight data centers that were constructed before the issue was widely controversial. The existing data centers are far smaller than the newer “hyperscale” projects that are meant to power AI and have faced opposition in communities across the country.
In July, the city’s planning commission said there are only two locations in the city that could support an industrial-size data center: the former South Philly refinery site known as the Bellwether District and 2600 Grant Ave., a city-owned plot adjacent to the Northeast Philadelphia airport.
Planning commission officials emphasized that they were not asked to consider a specific proposal to build a data center at either of those sites.
City Council has thus far not taken action on data centers, aside from passing a resolution authored by Councilmember Rue Landau earlier this year to hold hearings on the issue. A hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Council will convene Thursday for the first meeting of the fall session.
This is a developing story and will be updated.