a hypothetical question from Charlottetown Mayor Philip Brown<\/a> about whether the city had enough water capacity to support an AI data centre sparked online speculation that one was already in the works.<\/p>\nLISTEN | AI\u2019s future on P.E.I.:<\/p>\n
Island Morning8:01AI Datacentres <\/p>\n
While P.E.I. does not have the water or electricity to host a giant AI datacentre, a computer\u00a0scientist from Dalhousie University says we have plenty of brain power.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brown has since stressed there is no project in the works, saying he was only asking city staff whether Charlottetown had the water and electrical capacity if such a facility were ever proposed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were just questions,\u201d Brown said at a council meeting last week. \u201cThere was no request on building or looking for a developer for this type of project. None. Zero.\u201d<\/p>\n
AI data centres have been controversial, facing public pushback in Canada and the United States. Much of that is due to the demand for water and electricity needed to run those centres.<\/p>\n
Rudzicz said modern AI facilities are very different from traditional data centres, which historically could \u201cfit in a closet in an office\u201d with sufficient cooling.<\/p>\n
The shift has been driven by the explosion of data \u2014 not just spreadsheets, but video and audio \u2014 and the rise of large AI language models that require lots of electricity and extensive cooling, he said.<\/p>\n
Rudzicz said those large, resource-intensive facilities are typically operated by tech giants, often for their own purposes rather than direct public benefit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese things are very large \u2026 they generate a lot of heat, noise, they require a lot of cooling and energy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t see that happening in most of the three Maritime provinces. Something could be done in Newfoundland and Labrador that could service all of us, because they have space and they have hydro.\u201d<\/p>\n
Putting AI to work on Island challenges<\/p>\n
Rudzicz said places like P.E.I. should focus on using artificial intelligence in targeted ways that improve life on the Island, especially in areas like health care.<\/p>\n
He said many useful AI systems like that don\u2019t need hyperscale infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don’t need a massive large language model that requires all this heavy computation in order to fit on a smartwatch that can tell you if you’re going to fall or if you’re going to have a cardiac event,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are very specific small models.\u2026 They can’t write poetry, they can’t write your emails for you, but they can do one thing very well and work very effectively. And you don’t need massive data centres for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781963953_998_default.jpg\")
Dalhousie University professor Frank Rudzicz says he doesn\u2019t see the possibility of a massive, industrial-scale AI data centre being built in any of the three Maritime provinces. (Frank Rudzicz)<\/p>\n
For P.E.I., the real opportunity, he said, is building local expertise in AI rather than providing land, water and power to outside companies.<\/p>\n
Rudzicz said he wants to see more \u201cdomestic talent\u201d developed in the province, with more Islanders learning how AI systems work, how to adapt them and how to ensure privacy and safeguards are built into the technology.<\/p>\n
Those are \u201cpotentially high-paying jobs,\u201d he said, that could keep both expertise and money in the province instead of sending them to multinational companies that sell access to large AI models through subscriptions.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Rudzicz said P.E.I.\u2019s focus should be on using AI in ways that reflect the Island\u2019s own needs and strengths, including in sectors like agriculture.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we increasingly digitize our lives, we need to also just remember \u2026 what makes our cities, our provinces unique, and try to hold on to that too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61],"class_list":["post-749592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\")
<\/p>\n