We’re building AI that is different. It answers to the planet, not Big Tech. And it’s now more European – which means more independent, and more private.
We’re building AI that answers to the planet. And it’s now more European – which means more independent, and more private.
I don’t know if I’d say “many”, but the water usage is a red herring anyway. More importantly, data centers invariably use a lot of power and they are explicitly the reason we are currently reactivating mothballed nuclear and coal power plants, the reason we are not shutting down natural gas plants, in fact many of them are running temporarily, regularly or even full-time on their own small-scale natural gas turbines.
And they are doing this to generate mass quantities of shitty text and images, and to train new models to do the same, things that provide little to no actual value to humanity.
AI datacenters are an environmental catastrophe, whether they use any water or not.
Yes, technological societies use more and more electricity. Once cities were clogged with horses and shit. Steam engines ran on wood and coal. Cars are migrating from gasoline to electric.
I bought my suburban house 10 years ago. It had 50amp service. It had previously owned by the police chief. I had to immediately upgrade to 200 amps. The same is true for many houses in my area. None of these 1960 houses were meant for microwaves, central A/C, or a freezer in the basement. Not to mention electric for the car. My neighbor offsets this with solar.
When my company builds a new site, we make certain that capacity is added to the community that exceeds our use. And we pay for the build out. How the community adds that is their choice.
My place hosts for a biomedical. I understand they are working on molecular research including a Parkinson’s treatment. Meaningful work.
Not. All. Datacenters.
Musk, certainly is an asshole. Microsoft and Meta, too. I can’t speak to others.
Sustainable technological societies do NOT use more and more electricity, until such time as they have ensured that the externalized environmental costs of the energy providing that electricity have been adequately addressed. Posing our mostly fossil-fuelled “technological society” as if it is the only available choice besides the stone age is ignorant at best and disingenuous at worst.
I don’t necessarily disagree with your first point. Just that current human nature is short-term and selfish. Humans have never acted in a rational forward-looking way. I feel humans need to change in a foundational way before we see any kind of sustainable society.
And I don’t think I claimed the second. Again, just the way things are. Can we abolish capitalism and private ownership and personal autonomy to establish a new global society based on universal respect of all living beings? Sure. Will we? Not until we become something other than what we now consider “human”.
Personally, I think we are hopelessly doomed in the long run. But I have hope that I’m wrong.
I don’t know if I’d say “many”, but the water usage is a red herring anyway. More importantly, data centers invariably use a lot of power and they are explicitly the reason we are currently reactivating mothballed nuclear and coal power plants, the reason we are not shutting down natural gas plants, in fact many of them are running temporarily, regularly or even full-time on their own small-scale natural gas turbines.
And they are doing this to generate mass quantities of shitty text and images, and to train new models to do the same, things that provide little to no actual value to humanity.
AI datacenters are an environmental catastrophe, whether they use any water or not.
Yes, technological societies use more and more electricity. Once cities were clogged with horses and shit. Steam engines ran on wood and coal. Cars are migrating from gasoline to electric.
I bought my suburban house 10 years ago. It had 50amp service. It had previously owned by the police chief. I had to immediately upgrade to 200 amps. The same is true for many houses in my area. None of these 1960 houses were meant for microwaves, central A/C, or a freezer in the basement. Not to mention electric for the car. My neighbor offsets this with solar.
When my company builds a new site, we make certain that capacity is added to the community that exceeds our use. And we pay for the build out. How the community adds that is their choice.
My place hosts for a biomedical. I understand they are working on molecular research including a Parkinson’s treatment. Meaningful work.
Not. All. Datacenters.
Musk, certainly is an asshole. Microsoft and Meta, too. I can’t speak to others.
Sustainable technological societies do NOT use more and more electricity, until such time as they have ensured that the externalized environmental costs of the energy providing that electricity have been adequately addressed. Posing our mostly fossil-fuelled “technological society” as if it is the only available choice besides the stone age is ignorant at best and disingenuous at worst.
I don’t necessarily disagree with your first point. Just that current human nature is short-term and selfish. Humans have never acted in a rational forward-looking way. I feel humans need to change in a foundational way before we see any kind of sustainable society.
And I don’t think I claimed the second. Again, just the way things are. Can we abolish capitalism and private ownership and personal autonomy to establish a new global society based on universal respect of all living beings? Sure. Will we? Not until we become something other than what we now consider “human”.
Personally, I think we are hopelessly doomed in the long run. But I have hope that I’m wrong.