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How Bad Is A.I. for the Climate? Tech giants are building power-hungry data centers to run their artificial intelligence tools. The costs of that demand surge are becoming clearer.
(messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com)
I just... this? This is what we're supposed to care about? Not the bunker fuel burning shipping industry? Not the US hitting all-time oil production records last year? No, it's "Big Tech" and their diesel burning servers! Turns out "Mac" meant Mac trucks this whole time?
Come the fuck on with this shit.
Collectively we should be able to care about multiple things at once and also prioritze between them.
Even if data centers use mostly renewables, its not like those are actually so abundant that they would go unused. Its important to not just switch power generation but to actually also reduce power consumption, especially when its such low hanging fruits as AI.
Zero fossil fuels means zero in every industry.
Yeah, which is a solid goal! I don't know if you know this though, but most data centers run on renewables. They're way cheaper. Thats why there's so many data centers in regions with hydroelectric power stations.
This reads as pretty blatant oil industry propaganda trying to shift focus away from them and onto the current thing trump has made it trendy to hate. Down with big tech, those polluters with their... entirely electric infrastructure? If you want to get pissed about this, go after crypto miners. AI actually does something, and sometimes its even something overall positive for humanity! Crypto are just leeches.
The energy mix used by datacenters varies a LOT.
There are a bunch running on hydropower in the US pacific northwest, but also a ton which were co-located with coal-burning power plants in Virginia and Ohio.