AI versus the environment - a planning predicament

According to recent reports in the Sunday Times, the government is considering a new Artificial Intelligence Bill under which planning applications for AI proposals, such as data centres, would gain automatic approval unless ministers intervened. Under the proposals, applications to develop sites designated as AI “growth zones” would be approved automatically unless the Secretary of State or the local mayor objected within a short, set time frame. In order to achieve this the need for detailed environmental impact assessments and habitat regulations would be set aside, and developers would be required instead to pay into a central fund to mitigate all but the most serious environmental impacts.