Technology

Splurge for me, conserve for thee.

Same with water in CA. Industry uses >80% of water in the state and the focus is on 30 second showers and bullying citizens because their representatives have been captured along with their press in the profit machine.

But it's not the AI farm's fault, because they get paid to turn off during times the grid is under a lot of stress. So they make money 100% of the time, don't worry!

or use less water because the AI center needs it to cool off. its funny how all these AI data centers are only in red states, they dont make a fuss over it, but if they tried this a blue one, people would raise hell over it.

It's exactly what they want. He is avoiding use of clear, concise sentences to mislead the layman. The data center is generating a gigawatt of energy, for their use. The Wyoming power grid is their battery.

Some of these facilities do generate a significant portion of their own electricity via various means. It's not like that amount of energy is just sitting out there on the grid waiting to be used. Somebody has to generate it and if you're already investing millions in rectifiers, batteries, and other data center power systems, why wouldn't you consider taking it a step further?

I read something about natural gas powered power plants; not sure if it's this one specifically.

Because unfortunately this is not the only gigantic climate destroyer AI thingy planned/built.

Yeah that language is pure corporate BS - data centers CONSUME energy at massive scales (up to 1 gigawatt in this case, which is insane), they're literally just giant heaters that occasionally produce AI outputs as a byproduct of all that wasted electricty.

AI Data centers noticeably fuck with the grid. As a result they are facing internal and external pressure to generate more of their own power. Microsoft is opening a nuclear power plant. I would not be shocked to learn through solar, wind, and coal they provide the majority of their own power

But this proposed data center is so big, it would have its own dedicated energy from gas generation and renewable sources, according to Collins and company officials.

The "depending on how you count" probably refers to the renewables.

Why is this guy saying a datacenter generates energy?

It's less absurd than it sounds and requires understanding how modern data center facilities that are being deployed by big tech actually work and run at a facility-wide and systemic level. They do generate this energy, they just proceed to use it. Notice he says roughly a gigawatt of energy, which is nowhere near the gross need for the facility as per the article.

Most modern data centers built in the past few years, especially those that are "campuses" as described, have on-site power generation solutions. Sometimes this means classic oil/coal/gas generators on the property, sometimes it means more involved and nuanced situations. What Lehane is telling the AP here is that, of the energy consumed by the new data center as a whole, "roughly and depending how you count," 1 gigawatt comes from such sources. The article clearly states the center is set to deploy at 1.8 gigawatts consumption scaling up to 10 gigawatts over the lifespan of the facility. Presumably these are on the same time scales and everything. Frankly, for an AP article this was written quite poorly and the exact meaning of most this information isn't very clear. I don't think that's Lehane's fault implicitly. Just seems like bad reporting.

People have this image in their heads of these big data centers opening up and just like, sucking up all the power from the local grid due to their demand and this is what causes things such as blackouts. This is mildly incorrect. The negative effects of these data centers' power demands is less to do with them "overloading" public grids and more to do with the market economy of energy. You get blackouts because all the energy they can't generate themselves on-site must be acquired somewhere else. They can walk up to the local power companies and buy energy just like any private citizen can. They often get discounted rates compared to the plebes, too. You end up with blackouts because the energy companies don't give a shit who they sell their product to, they just care that it sells. When companies like Microsoft, Nvidia, or OpenAI roll up with significantly more capital and resources than anyone else in the local economy, they're easily able to out-compete even the entirety of the local domestic power demand. That's what causes blackouts.

No one wants to talk about this because it's easier to just say braindead shit like "fuck datacenters/AI/big-tech/fuckingwhateveritis" so you can feel like you're "on the right side" than it is to acknowledge the long line of people in both the public and private sectors who had to rubber-stamp personally fucking the average person for us to even get to this point. Does big tech suck absolutely, fat, stinking donkey balls? For fucking sure. Are they anything more than a symptom of a much more entrenched societal rot? Nope.

the only thing that makes sense is heat

My data center has 35MW of generators onsite. No modern DC is designed nor built without backup generators to allow continuous operation during any utility power outages.

You're absolutely correct - just taking the opportunity to add some hard facts:

587,618

That is very little considering it's about the size of any other mid-Western state.

So: "This AI data center will use the energy of half a million households" - doesn't sound much better.

Yes, and my bill become 1/5 of what it was, so maybe is was a not so stupid thing to do.

its was so that coal/gas/oil dont need to reduce thier own footprint, they moved onto "you should reduce yours" and were funding fake eco-activism and "reduce your footprint companies" so we dont do it.

*a barn goes dark

Its going to ruin most states around it too, Wyoming is a massive net electricity exporter, due to cheap coal and wind resources. A majority of what they produce is transmitted to neighboring states, as far as Oregon and Washington.

misinformation about declining birth rates

What misinformation? Every expert on the subject is agreeing that we're at or below replacement rate.

I was looking for someone to say this. Then realized not many people here watch recent movies.

Becoming rich is an obsession. It doesn't just end once you're rich.

I have seen impulsive gaslighting and malicious classified spill out of every one of these ai. Straight up doing verbal abuse.

Edit: I'm gonna go on. I forget what I was talking about, but I was connecting various facts and asking about Epstein stuff. It immediately and repeatedly classified it as non serious conspiracy, and after pressing, presented facts backing 4 out of 5 of the things it said was crazy, and there have been books written saying the exact same thing.