Civic Interplay / Sovereignties
AI Sovereignties
A live map of the infrastructure behind AI in Australia, and the public debate forming around it. Data centres, mines, refineries, the energy and water they draw, and the lines of ownership running through them. Each point is a real site on the ground.
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What you're looking at
Every point is a site: a data centre, a mine, a refinery, or a piece of energy or water infrastructure. The colours trace ownership and governance, who owns it, who approved it, and what it draws to keep running. The map reads from an open tracker, so it shifts as the tracker does.
The debate, not just the opposition
Alongside the map we track contestation: the public record of who is arguing about these sites, on what grounds, and how intensely. It holds the case for as well as against. Jobs, investment and sovereign capability on one side; water, energy, consultation and amenity on the other.
One pattern we watch is the lag, how long after a project is approved before any public contestation appears. Where a foreign-owned site carrying a sovereignty claim draws none at all, the silence is itself the finding.
Where the data comes from
The map is read from the Critical Infrastructure Tracker, an open database updated as projects move. The contestation record is built from planning submissions, local and national press, council and inquiry material, and notes from the ground. Everything here is a draft, and corrections are welcome.