deliriousdreams

I wonder if this is newly built/to be built data centers for AI, or ones that previously existed/ are being built for general web infrastructure. The article doesn’t say.

I think public works can just make them these days.

I have one question. Where exactly are you expecting them to get that amount of gray water?

A data center uses approximately 600,000 gallons of water annually. Of that, it looks like the closed loop cooling system uses 25% of that (150,000 gallons).

Where are they slurping up 150,000 gallons of gray water from? They aren’t keeping rain tanks on the premises to feed into the system when they start the whole thing up. Are they just slurping it up from a lake? Why is that preferable? And let’s say they do that? Algae bloom in the cooling system causing them to gobble up 150,000 gallons more water is better?

Even construction sites (who are used this water in the article by the way) use potable water because not doing so effects how much time it takes for concrete to set.

What I’m saying is, yeah, data centers as a whole for AI are bullshit. By the same token, the internet you use everyday (without any AI use at all) also uses data centers and they also use the same kinds of resources (because the majority of water used in AI that effects the environment detrimentally comes from training models, not from AI use from the general public).

So are you also mad at all the other data centers or just the AI ones?

It was a smokescreen. They literally used AI as an excuse for layoffs in order to maximize profits and minimize overhead in the short term.

I’m all for studying this to have science back up what we already knew, but at the same time I absolutely am having a “duh” moment here.

The cost isn’t just in the actual fiber cable here but in the connection end points and their termination, plus the device you’d be hooking it up to and the size of said device to decode whatever you needed decoded into actual sound you can hear. The optics device adds cost (which I probably should have mentioned). Repair is also more expensive which is why generally we cap and install along side instead of attempting repair. When you add in the cost of manufacturing or installing it, comparitively copper isn’t just cheaper by raw material (that cheapness depends on the scale), but also because of everything that goes into installing and using it.

This is why there is a cost trade off where you get benefits: Less Weight, Immunity to Electronic Noise, Stronger Signal, Electrical Isolation, Environmental Protection, Improved Safety, Overall System Economy, Long Term Cost Benefits.

But a device the size of a regular covert microphone would still need other components. I may have made the mistake of comparing this to like a button hole mic or something similar rather than a professional microphone (which is also expensive as hell).

Besides, how much more copper do you think you’d be using in a traditional mic than in a fiber optic equivalent?

Ctation needed.

Nothing in the article about them even being back-charged for the water they used. Literally just some nonsense about not fining them.

I don’t think that grand larceny charge is coming. Just a hunch.

This is a “fuck the constituency, the data center is more lucrative” take that I expect these days from public officials.

Whole meme about Americans but we’re trying to re-invent the wheel today I see.

Shouldn’t it be Usanians?

There are problems with the material components used. Fiber optics are used in places where they will be stationary for a long time, not have excessive bends that exceed their bend radius, and where there is a requirement for environmental/weather proofing. Drops, bumps, or other stressors that a regular microphone would survive don’t necessarily work for fiber optics because when you get right down to it they’re fragile.

They’re also more expensive than regular copper or aluminum wiring, and in this case I suspect that their required proximity would be a downside.

Same reason they love Trump. They get feedback that re-enforces what they already believe, and having someone else agree and co-sign them validates their opinions in their minds which makes them feel good.

This is what happens on construction projects where the municipality isn’t properly enforcing or securing the construction site’s access to water, and it happens a lot. Municipalities should be held accountable by their constituency for the failure to secure access and bill construction companies regardless of what kind of construction is being done. They meter the water of regular users, industrial use should also be metered and paid for.

Don’t at me with BS about how AI companies shouldn’t be building data centers. I know. I agree. That is a separate issue from the failure of the municipality here.

a data center campus 20 miles south of Atlanta had been drawing roughly 29 million gallons through two water connections the county didn’t know existed, Politico reported Saturday.

Tigert told Politico that her department has a single employee handling both inspections and plan reviews, saying, “… we don’t have enough staff. We can’t keep staff.”

Absolutely agree. The corruption is the problem, but is that an age based thing?

The people in charge don’t actually need to understand technology. This is what subject matter experts are for. You hire subject matter experts to research the technology in question and collaborate with them to come to a decisions about how regulations should be enacted. I don’t know where we got this idea that someone who’s job is legislation should be a subject matter expert on technology (or aerospace, or I dunno, fucking education, engineering or whatever), but it’s actually a bad precedent we’re setting because that’s not what a legislator is supposed to be doing. Lawyers don’t have to understand technology or medicine or fluid dynamics in order to practice law. They hire and utilize people who specialize in those fields.

It’s definitely not just boomers who don’t understand technology. I’d wager there’s more Boomers who understand tech than there are Gen Z who understand tech.

I also actually think the story goes more like “if we regulate AI we can’t take kickbacks, use the unregulated AI market to enrich ourselves, or use the tech for our techno-facist nanny state big brother dreams”.

Because while the general red tape does take a little while, they aren’t even trying to regulate AI on a large scale. Smaller governments are making a tacit effort but by and large most of them see this as a way to enact mass surveillance policy.

To be fair he doesn’t have to use Alexa (or Google or any of the tech firm’s BS electronics). What they do is provide an easy avenue for those who aren’t tech savvy, or are lazy to incorporate smart home features into their homes without a lot of extra fuss. Given how these products seem to degrade over time it might be better to just suggest he look into home assistant rather than sabataging him, but your mileage may vary.

They shouldn’t be allowed to track critics at all. No biometric data, no PII, no web monitoring etc. Unless the court decides there’s a credible threat.

I believe it is on pixel unless you completely opt out when you set up the device but don’t quote me on that.

They don’t have to implement this through chrome if you have a device that runs the Gemini app. I saw a comment on another thread that said the AI Core app for Gemini will take up like 4-12GB of storage or something like that.

That would make it a slang contraction. Do with that information what you will.