Regulatory Capture: The Engine Behind the AI Infrastructure Boom?
time to. put on the big boy pants folks
One of the most important concepts I’ve been researching over the past several months is regulatory capture, the process by which governments gradually stop acting primarily in the public interest and begin advancing the interests of the very industries they are supposed to regulate.
The interview below isn’t about AI data centres or broadband specifically. It’s about alleged corporate influence over antitrust enforcement in the United States. But the pattern it describes raises a much bigger question:
What happens when governments and major corporations begin moving in lockstep on projects worth hundreds of billions of dollars?
Today, governments around the world are investing unprecedented sums in AI infrastructure, broadband networks, transmission lines, energy corridors, and digital connectivity. We’re told it’s about faster internet, economic growth, innovation, and competitiveness. Those may well be among the goals. But as citizens, we also have a responsibility to ask tougher questions.
Who is driving these decisions? Who benefits financially? Who owns the infrastructure once it’s built? Who sets the rules? And who is left holding the bill?
AND most importantly…Who controls the systems that increasingly shape our day-to-day lives?
As many of you know, I’ve been digging into Alberta’s AI data centre expansion and Sturgeon County’s publicly funded broadband project. The more documents I read, the more convinced I become that we need to understand not just the technology, but the governance behind it.
If regulatory capture is occurring on the scale alleged in this interview, then it isn’t simply a competition issue. It becomes a question of democratic accountability. Before we spend billions of taxpayer dollars transforming our physical and digital infrastructure, Canadians deserve transparency, meaningful public debate, and confidence that these decisions are being made in the public interest … not simply in the interests of those with the greatest financial or political influence.
Watch the interview below, then ask yourself one question:
When governments and industry are moving in the same direction, how do we ensure the public remains at the centre of the decision-making process?
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Smith is a Progressive Traitor!
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Mr Wonderful's Puppet 🐑
"...regulatory capture, the process by which governments gradually stop acting primarily in the public interest and begin advancing the interests of the very industries they are supposed to regulate." If that is the definition then it would appear that the process was completed years, if not decades ago... maybe even over a century ago. The only difference is that now, with the advent of the Internet, we are all starting to see what was previously hidden by lies, propaganda and the absolute control of the all forms of media,... which was all just part of the process.