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Community members gathered in the Ford School of Public Policy Monday morning to attend \u201cAI, nuclear politics and the Los Alamos data center<\/a>,\u201d a panel featuring professors, policy experts and local activists. Panelists discussed the potential environmental, political and community impacts of the University of Michigan\u2019s planned<\/a> data center in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory<\/a>. The University recently purchased<\/a> a parcel for the project along the Huron River in Ypsilanti Township.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Panelist Chris Gilmer-Hill, policy manager of the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition<\/a>, said he began advocating against the data center when the Michigan Legislature granted<\/a> data centers major tax exemptions in December 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI got involved in the data center fight \u2014 mostly at the state level through work \u2014 when they were trying to pass these tax exemptions through land,\u201d said Gilmer-Hill. \u201cI\u2019ve gotten really involved in organizing across the state, locally, where I live in Detroit and all these communities, trying to get people more informed that we really do have the power at the state level, at the local level, to just not go along with what\u2019s happening.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Public Policy student Rebecca Coyne and Environment and Sustainability student Cooper Sykes, the panel\u2019s moderators, opened up the discussion by asking panelists about the most significant environmental impacts of data centers. Panelist Ben Green, assistant professor of information and public policy, said he believes the rapid growth<\/a> of artificial intelligence is actively weakening<\/a> climate commitments across political parties.\u00a0<\/p>\n