{"id":790894,"date":"2026-10-03T17:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T17:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/790894\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T17:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T17:42:13","slug":"queens-brian-may-issues-warning-to-andy-burnham-over-evil-ai-data-centres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/790894\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen\u2019s Brian May issues warning to Andy Burnham over \u2018evil\u2019 AI data centres"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Independent and Yahoo will earn a commission from purchases made via links in this article. Pricing and availability are subject to change.<\/p>\n

Sir Brian May<\/a> has urged Andy Burnham<\/a> to block AI \u201cbefore it\u2019s too late\u201d and dubbed data centres \u201ca massive evil\u201d that \u201chave to be fought\u201d. <\/p>\n

The British guitarist, 79, revealed that he designed a Queen immersive experience, similar to ABBA\u2019s virtual concert ABBA Voyage, but wouldn\u2019t move forward with the show until it was possible without AI. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have serious misgivings about that,\u201d the musician told The Times<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe all like AI. It helps us write emails. It\u2019s even saved a few lives. But the harm it is bringing to the world is immense,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

May shared that he\u2019d even nixed a video for his recent song \u201cMy Angels Are Calling\u201d after its directors admitted they\u2019d used AI to create it. <\/p>\n

\u201cAI would have stolen the angels from some artist, so they had to go,\u201d the guitarist said of his choice to shut down the video. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re facing a moral dilemma: you can\u2019t hide from this thing, but it\u2019s turning us into a very different civilisation and personally I\u2019m terrified. These tech billionaires do not have our interests at heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"May<\/a><\/p>\n

May urged the Prime Minister to block AI \u2018before it\u2019s too late\u2019 (Getty)<\/p>\n

Last month, the government rejected calls for a so-called \u201ckill switch\u201d to protect against an attack from rogue artificial intelligence. <\/a><\/p>\n

The position came amid escalating alarms over technological risks, including warnings from experts that the technology could wipe out humanity within the decade<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are more than 100 data centres in varying stages of development across the UK and over 500 already established. In a report submitted to parliament by Water UK earlier this year, it was estimated these facilities use the equivalent water used by 20,000 average homes. <\/p>\n

Burnham<\/a> said he wants the UK to lead the world in developing a set of rules to prevent the spread of rogue artificial intelligence (AI), putting him on a collision course with US President Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Burnham<\/a><\/p>\n

Burnham has said he wants the UK to pursue AI’s benefits but be clear on its risks (PA)<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister<\/a> has told world leaders that he wants the UK to act as an \u201chonest broker\u201d to draw up \u201ca single set of global principles and standards\u201d for the development of frontier AI.<\/p>\n

Although Burnham acknowledged AI would be a source of disruption to jobs and said warnings from industry insiders about the technology\u2019s existential risk to humanity must be heeded, he also highlighted potential for healthcare, education, defence and economic development. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know how worried people are. So we have to rise to this moment,\u201d the Prime Minister said. <\/p>\n

With Queen, May had six UK number one singles and 10 UK number one albums. Some of the band\u2019s best-known songs include \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d, \u201cKiller Queen\u201d, and \u201cWe Are The Champions\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Independent and Yahoo will earn a commission from purchases made via links in this article. Pricing and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-790894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}