A conference on artificial intelligence in Palm Springs comes as the Coachella Valley is experiencing whiplash from the newest technology.
On one end of the valley, the region’s tech leaders are preparing to share ideas on what could prove to be a life-changing tool. On the other end, local residents are banding together to prevent the industrial machinery needed to make that tool work.
PS/NExt, a day-and-a-half summit held at the Palm Springs Convention Center from Monday to Tuesday, June 22 to 23, bills itself as an immersive experience for those interested in learning the latest technology. It’s part of a long-term effort by Palm Springs leaders to position the city as a leader in AI.
“We’re not Hollywood; we’re not Silicon Valley. We need to lean into this to better understand it, to hear from local and national experts and to be able to set our own future,” said Palm Springs City Councilmember Jeffrey Bernstein.
He was instrumental in organizing the city’s first AI conference in 2025 and has sought to expand it in 2026.
“Things are happening so fast that it’s hard to keep on top of it,” he said. “That’s a big reason that we want to keep pushing this.”
Last year, the conference ran for just a day. This year, organizers are bringing back some of the same keynote speakers, while adding more. The various seminars available to attendees are meant to help them integrate AI into businesses or figure out how to use it in their daily lives.
Local students are also a focus. The conference will feature high schoolers learning how to build their own AI tools. The lessons are only possible because of the new residents who have recently moved to the city.
“In the last five years, there’s been significant changes. We have this incredible influx of tech talent. Some of it is because they’re remote workers. Some of it is because they’re retired here,” Bernstein said. “What seems universal in this tech talent is they want to give back and they want to give back to education.”
A different perspective on AI in Coachella, east valley
Although the conference has the intention of uplifting the community, it is taking place in the shadow of a debate over data centers and their place in the Coachella Valley.
Indio, Coachella and Desert Hot Springs have all instituted temporary moratoriums on data center development, with Coachella expected to enshrine a permanent ban into its city ordinances.
Since a proposal for a hyperscale data center in Coachella became known in April, large protests have taken place during Coachella City Council meetings. The public pressure became so great, the demonstrators were able to drive the council to pull back on the plans.
“It wasn’t just the residents of Coachella,” said Coachella Mayor Frank Figueroa. “The Coachella valley residents said, ‘we don’t want it here, period.'”
Data centers are massive clusters of computer servers that perform the complex computations that allow artificial intelligence to work. However, their huge scale and tremendous need for both electricity and water have led many communities across the U.S. to turn developers away who want to build them.
The 240-acre Coachella data center would have used around 300 megawatts of power, equivalent to the amount used by a small city.
For Figueroa, the artificial intelligence conference comes at a inopportune moment.
“We just went through a ban process. What is this telling people? It’s really like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s great, you’re banning data centers, but we’re still going to use it over there,'” he said, referring to the Palm Springs conference. “I understand their perspective on it, but you’ve got to read the room.”
Figueroa also spoke about an opinion piece published by The Desert Sun, but written by Indian Wells Mayor Toper Taylor. In the column, Taylor urged Coachella to build the data center, brushing aside the water concerns.
“He cared more about the money and the impact it would do financially than what it would do to the people that live here,” Figueroa said.
Benefits of AI — and questions
If any Coachella Valley resident has seen the transformational power of AI, it’s Kelly Boesch. She was an artist and longtime IMAX employee, who started playing around with AI image generation three years ago.
Ever since then, her AI art has wracked up hundreds of millions of views online and led to a record deal. She will be a keynote speaker at PS/NExt to discuss how artificial intelligence can complement creativity.
“I really encourage people to try it because it’s such a great creative and fun and artistic way to get your feelings out,” she said. “If you can’t paint, you can definitely do AI.”
The Palm Desert resident creates artificial intelligence music videos using programs like Midjourney, which generates video, and Suno, which generates music. She posts the videos on YouTube, where they sometimes receive millions of views.
She says she has to specifically tailor the prompts to generate the surreal and color-coordinated images she wants.
“The more creative you are, the more creative it is,” she said.
Still, Boesch said the debate over data centers in Coachella had caused her to question herself.
“That data center opened my eyes a bit,” she said. “I will be there until the last day begging them not to be here.”
For those who use AI and those who are impacted by the industrial machines needed to run it, the debate remains ongoing. The Coachella Valley may have avoided the addition of a hyperscale data center for the moment, but that doesn’t mean another developer won’t propose one in the future.
It’s a question many will be forced to reckon with in the coming months and years.
“I have a really hard time sometimes with what I do,” Boesch said, “knowing that it uses a lot of water and a lot of electricity.”
She said she took comfort in the messages of support people have left her regarding her art. Some have said her art helped them get through tough times. But the question of where to put the additional data centers needed to upscale artificial intelligence across the country remains.
“When I heard it was coming here, it really made me stop and think,” she added. “It’s very hard and it sits with me hard.”
Sam Morgen covers local government for The Desert Sun. Reach him at smorgen@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: AI conference in Palm Springs comes amid data center backlash
Reporting by Sam Morgen, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Sam Morgen, Palm Springs Desert Sun | USA TODAY Network
