Berlin anarchists cite AI in attack on key energy infrastructure | Computer Weekly

"The Volcano Group said its targets were 'the fossil fuel economy' and 'energy-guzzling' digital technologies such as AI that are contributing to the planet's rapid environmental destitution. "In the greed for energy, the Earth is being drained, sucked dry, burned, ravaged, razed, raped and destroyed," they said. "Entire regions are rendered uninhabitable ... With our militant action, we reject the offers of participation in a world ravaged by destruction.""

"The group further argued that AI-driven digital infrastructure expansions - in Berlin but also globally - will only promote further environmental degradation while enabling more authoritarian political solutions via the transformation of urban environments into 'smart city' metropolises. "Switch off the greed for energy, switch off the digital management of life, switch off the progress of destruction," they said."

On 3 January 2026 members of the Vulkangruppe used homemade incendiary devices to destroy cables at the Lichterfelde power station in south-west Berlin. The attack cut electricity to around 45,000 households and 2,200 businesses; roughly 10,000 households and 300 businesses were reconnected within 24 hours, but most remained without power until 7 January. Some hospitals and schools used emergency generators while the five-day blackout was reportedly the longest in the German capital since the Second World War. The group said it targeted the fossil fuel economy and "energy-guzzling" digital technologies such as AI, arguing that AI-driven infrastructure expansion causes environmental degradation and enables authoritarian "smart city" control. The group called to "switch off the greed for energy" and rejected participation in a world it described as ravaged by destruction.

Read at ComputerWeekly.com