What does the AI boom look like when it becomes physical?

In this episode of The People’s AI, presented by the Vana Foundation, we explore the data centers, power grids, water systems, and compute networks behind today’s AI revolution. Every chatbot response, AI-generated video, coding agent, and model query has to run somewhere, and increasingly, that means massive data centers that require huge amounts of electricity, water, land, and local approval.

We look at why AI infrastructure has become one of the biggest questions in tech: whether the current data center buildout is a real shortage, a speculative bubble, or something in between. We examine local opposition to data centers, the strain on the power grid, rising energy costs, water use, and the challenge of measuring AI’s full environmental and social impact.

We also explore the history of computing efficiency through Moore’s Law and Koomey’s Law, and why the old assumption of getting more computing power “for free” may no longer hold. As AI demand grows, especially from agents and heavy inference workloads, the question becomes not just whether we need more compute, but how that compute should be built.

Finally, we examine decentralized compute as a possible part of the solution. Instead of concentrating AI infrastructure in a handful of giant data centers, could compute become more distributed, flexible, and closer to where unused resources and energy already exist?

Guests

• Greg Osuri — Founder and CEO, Akash Network
• Lee Rainie — Director, Imagining the Digital Future Institute, Elon University
• Andrew Chien — Professor of Computer Science, University of Chicago; Senior Scientist, Argonne National Laboratory
• Jonathan Koomey — Energy and computing researcher; President, Koomey Analytics

The People’s AI is presented by the Vana Foundation, supporting a new internet rooted in data sovereignty and user ownership, where individuals, not corporations, govern their own data and share the value it creates. Learn more at Vana.org.

What is your data actually worth, and who gets paid when it moves through the invisible economy?

In this episode of The People’s AI, presented by the Vana Foundation, we explore the hidden markets built on the data we generate every day. From geolocation signals and shopping behavior to credit histories and even the weight of restaurant garbage, we look at how ordinary activity becomes valuable information for hedge funds, advertisers, lenders, retailers, and now AI companies.

We trace the origins of modern data markets through the history of credit bureaus, then examine how today’s data broker economy works, why individual data may be worth only fractions of a cent on its own, and why it becomes enormously valuable at scale. We also ask the harder question underneath it all: who actually owns user data, legally and morally?

As AI companies search for more specialized, high-quality data, the stakes are changing. We explore why AI labs may increasingly need financial data, behavioral data, and user-permissioned datasets, and what that could mean for personal data monetization, data ownership, and the future of data portability.

We also examine alternative models, including user-created datasets, decentralized data markets, and data commons that could give individuals and communities more agency, attribution, and control over how their data is used.

Guests:

• James Coyle — Data Monetization Consultant
• Alex Johnson — Founder, Fintech Takes
• Stefaan Verhulst — Co-Founder, The GovLab at NYU

The People’s AI is presented by the Vana Foundation, supporting a new internet rooted in data sovereignty and user ownership, where individuals, not corporations, govern their own data and share the value it creates. Learn more at Vana.org.

What if the best real-world example of data portability is hiding in plain sight inside your bank account?

In this episode of The People’s AI, presented by the Vana Foundation, we explore why open banking has become one of the clearest success stories in moving data from one platform to another. Starting with the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, we look at how regulators, markets, and common technical standards helped create a system where consumers can more easily access and share their financial data.

We examine what open banking actually is, how it works through standardized APIs, and why it succeeded in places like the UK, Europe, and Brazil. We also explore the role of competition, trust, consent, and regulation, and why banking may have opened up faster than many other industries.

From there, we turn to the future. As AI agents become more capable of acting on our behalf, financial services may need to serve not just people, but AI systems that shop rates, move money, and make decisions for us. That raises deeper questions about digital identity, who should control financial data, and what kinds of trust infrastructure will be needed if AI is going to play a real role in finance.

Guests

• Eyal Sivan — General Manager, North America, Ozone API; board member, Financial Data Exchange
• Chris Skinner — Author, commentator, founder of The Finanser; author of Intelligent Bank
• David G.W. Birch — Author, advisor, and commentator on digital money and identity; author of Identity Is the New Money

The People’s AI is presented by the Vana Foundation, supporting a new internet rooted in data sovereignty and user ownership, where individuals, not corporations, govern their own data and share the value it creates. Learn more at Vana.org.