Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence

Imagine the sleek smartphone in your hand, or the electric car silently cruising down the street. Behind these marvels lies a story not often told — one of immense extraction and environmental sacrifice. Artificial intelligence, often thought of as a digital, ethereal force, is deeply rooted in the physical world. The lithium mined in Nevada's Clayton Valley powers the batteries that make mobility and computation possible. Each Tesla Model S, for instance, needs approximately 138 pounds of lithium just for its battery pack. This mineral, sometimes called 'gray gold,' is vital but finite. The shimmering evaporation ponds in the desert, with their alien green hues, are a testament to this extraction. Yet, this boom comes with a price.

Travel farther afield to Inner Mongolia, where a vast artificial lake stretches over five miles, filled not with water but with toxic black mud — the byproduct of rare earth mineral processing. This lake holds over 180 million tons of waste powder, a silent witness to the hidden costs of powering our interconnected world. Rare earth elements like neodymium and cerium are common in everyday devices, from speakers to camera lenses, but their extraction produces acidic water and radioactive residue, devastating local ecosystems.

These environmental costs are rarely accounted for in the price of our devices. Instead, they are externalized, borne by communities far removed from the gleaming tech hubs of Silicon Valley. The history of mining is a history of displacement and destruction. The minerals that fuel AI systems are extracted in places where the true costs — from polluted rivers to health crises — remain largely invisible to consumers.

Yet, this is only the beginning of the story. The energy required to run AI systems is vast, and the logistics of transporting these materials span the globe, weaving a planetary network of extraction, labor, and power. Understanding AI means starting here, at the earth’s surface, where the digital and physical worlds converge. Without these materials and this energy, AI as we know it simply would not exist.

As we move forward, we will explore how human labor and data fuel these systems, revealing the complex, often hidden, architectures that sustain artificial intelligence. The journey from earth to algorithm is long and intricate — and it begins with the ground beneath our feet.

Let us now turn to the human dimension of AI: the labor that powers this vast machine.