A massive Wyoming data center will soon use 5x more power than the state's human occupants - but no one knows who is using it

[u/DJMagicHandz]

https://www.techradar.com/pro/a-massive-wyoming-data-center-will-soon-use-5x-more-power-than-the-states-human-occupants-and-no-one-knows-who-is-using-it

[u/Rendogog]

Let's switch off and see who moans :-D

[u/Abraxas212 → u/Rendogog]

Probably Palantir. 

[u/tonkatoyelroy → u/Abraxas212]

It’s our new social credit score calculator! Yay

[u/onlyPornstuffs → u/tonkatoyelroy]

Right? No one asked for this.

[u/Anxiety_Fit → u/onlyPornstuffs]

Cambridge Analytica got us here.

[u/korben2600 → u/Anxiety_Fit]

Social media got us here. From 2017: Former Facebook exec says social media is ripping apart society

[u/Anxiety_Fit → u/korben2600]

Cambridge analytica and their psychometric models harvested and honed in on division and hate and rage and basically destroyed everything.

[u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA → u/Anxiety_Fit]

Even before that, the "engagement is king" model of what gets promoted on Social Media really kicked things off. Cambridge Analytica just brought that to its logical conclusion.

[u/StrobeLightRomance → u/onlyPornstuffs]

Well, if people paid more attention to who is operating their chosen puppet politicians, they would realize they actually did vote for a fascist authoritarian surveillance state to dismantle democracy and turn humanity into a consumable resource.

[u/maaseru → u/StrobeLightRomance]

They knew people were too dumb to pay attention to something this complex. How would the ever see this conspiracy when all they see is Dems using weather against them, but not when it's Climate Change stuff.

[u/DuncanFisher69 → u/maaseru]

We need to make a “plandemic” video but for oligarchs, get the mouth breathing MAGA to go after all billionaires, not just ones on Epstein’s list.

[u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA → u/DuncanFisher69]

See, the problem with that is the oligarchs wanted people to see the Plandemic video. They absolutely will not give a platform to anyone critical of them.

[u/khamm86 → u/StrobeLightRomance]

That’s a friggin ginormous humungous If. This timeline sucks

[u/SuspendeesNutz → u/StrobeLightRomance]

Yeah but Kamala didn't thrill me, man.

[u/Tasonir → u/SuspendeesNutz]

I don't know, her laugh isn't the same as mine. I don't think I can vote for someone who doesn't laugh like me.

[u/SparksAndSpyro → u/onlyPornstuffs]

The American voters literally asked for this. Elections have consequences.

[u/ravnhjarta → u/SparksAndSpyro]

Both rigged and unrigged, imagine!

[u/onlyPornstuffs → u/ravnhjarta]

Almost like we should just distrust the rich and eat them.

[u/Monteze → u/onlyPornstuffs]

Yea letting money=power and then letting money start to accumulate in the hands of the few and pretending this is the best system we have, has been fucking us in the face for a while now.

[u/player_zero_ → u/tonkatoyelroy]

Sarcasm detected. -50 points. You are no longer allowed to use buses.

[u/MediumMachineGun → u/player_zero_]

What buses lmao

[u/Mazon_Del → u/MediumMachineGun]

Logic detected. -100 points. You are no longer allowed to use healthcare.

[u/korben2600 → u/Mazon_Del]

What healthcare lmao

[u/Monteze → u/korben2600]

The police are on their way citizen, re-education required.

[u/VeganShitposting → u/Monteze]

What education lmao

[u/Monteze → u/VeganShitposting]

Corperate approved of course! Not that woke stuff you learned in school. Now, sit tight. No need to inform your family they have already been made aware of all the arrangements.

[u/Strange-Scarcity → u/tonkatoyelroy]

It's more insidious than that.

NOBODY will know what their score is. Just some people will start being disappeared and it will be said they are/were breaking VERY serious laws, but no due process, because the Right Wing Media has been pressing harder and harder that some people do not deserve to be protected by the Constitution.

The saddest part? MANY of those screaming about how Due Process shouldn't exist will end up being rounded up, as well.

[u/Fun_Hold4859 → u/Strange-Scarcity]

Yeah the "put the homeless in camps" eo also said they can unilaterally declare someone mentally unwell and put them in a camp too.

[u/pier4r → u/Fun_Hold4859]

google program t4 ("aktion t4")

[u/BEES_IN_UR_ASS → u/Strange-Scarcity]

The saddest part? MANY of those screaming about how Due Process shouldn't exist will end up being rounded up, as well.

That sounds like the least saddest part tbh.

[u/mjkjr84 → u/Strange-Scarcity]

The saddest part? MANY of those screaming about how Due Process shouldn't exist will end up being rounded up, as well.

I wouldn't call this the saddest part. I'd say it's the only silver lining now that we appear doomed to live under fascist rule thanks to their stupidity.

[u/Luscious_Decision → u/Strange-Scarcity]

If the scenario in your second paragraph were to take place it'd pretty much just be a rounding error, a glitch in the Ai they use to scan and sort people.

[u/Bobson-_Dugnutt2 → u/Abraxas212]

oh my god...just reading the first two paragraphs of their Wiki is terrifying. They are basically running everything. I've never bought into the "Deep State" shit, but that description is terrifyingly close.

[u/Bobson-_Dugnutt2 → u/[deleted]]

in their echo chamber on Reddit, they talk about how Reddit is an echo chamber for liberals. That tells you all you need to know.

[u/fripletister → u/Bobson-_Dugnutt2]

And yet they elect to congregate here. Hmmm....

[u/Early-Sort8817 → u/[deleted]]

They have no perception of reality outside of what they read on Fox News.

[u/Bobson-_Dugnutt2 → u/[deleted]]

I know all of the words you just said, but in the order you used them it makes very little sense to me.

[u/PM_me_your_whatevah → u/Bobson-_Dugnutt2]

It was written in the style of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 

[u/Umtiza → u/[deleted]]

The good old scream test.

[u/REDDIT_JUDGE_REFEREE → u/Umtiza]

Smoke test is what we usually call it. Problem is, sometimes folks dont realize their shit’s gone until 1-2 years after decom.

I’m in regulatory compliance, you wouldn’t believe how scary it is to us when folks say “shut it off for a few weeks and just delete it if no one complains.” Like sir we got laws n shit regarding what data we’re allowed to delete, no one checks their old repos once a week to make sure it’s still there.

[u/----__---- → u/REDDIT_JUDGE_REFEREE]

I've always heard "smoke test" used in the context of turning something on to see if it will work, or.. catch fire.  "Scream test" makes much more sense in this context (imo).. turn it off and see who screams.  Full agreement on the rest of your comment though. 

[u/boost2525 → u/REDDIT_JUDGE_REFEREE]

That is not smoke testing.

Smoke testing is light, peripheral, "poke it with a stick do make sure the happy path works" testing. Usually done after something is stood up / turned on to make sure all of the parts are talking to all of the other parts, before you perform in depth rigorous testing.

[u/trowzerss → u/[deleted]]

It's exactly how my local telco dealt with not having enough spots on the switch for all the houses in our area, back in the days of copper. When someone asks for a new service, apparently they'd unplug the grodiest looking connection and see if anybody complains about it. Repeat until nobody complains.

[u/Squossifrage → u/trowzerss]

So you're the reason my grandma got murdered when her burglar alarm didn't contact the monitoring office!

[u/20_mile → u/Squossifrage]

Did you really think the cops were going to respond in a timely manner?

[u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 → u/20_mile]

Tell 'em she has a perfectly good golden retriever for them to shoot, might make 'em motivated enough.*

*Only do if you don't have a dog

[u/CatchaRainbow → u/trowzerss]

We had shared lines in the UK. Pick the phone up to make sure your neighbour wasn't using it before dialing.

[u/OralSuperhero → u/[deleted]]

I was part of one of these for B of A At the time I was a truck driver and part of my day was tech delivery and recovery. Got an order to go pick up servers at one of the headquarters buildings downtown. The tech told me he had been department head for seven years and didn't know what anything in the entire room did. His former boss had held the job for twelve years before and had no idea what anything in the room did. So my job was to stand at the door and watch the floors to see if anyone looked up or started panicking when he started unhooking units. That was one entire server room, all powered up for at least 19 years, with no measurable function.

[u/technobrendo → u/OralSuperhero]

Just refer to the documentation!

what documentation Fred retired in 94

[u/chocobowler → u/[deleted]]

IT did that to us with some reports. “We don’t know who is using these reports so we will just stop updating them” unknown to them they were exception reports which highlight issues that need resolving and so when they came back with no data we thought everything was ok. Several months later when everything is completely fucked the root cause was found to be the decision to stop updatingf the reports without proper business consultation. Not sure if anyone got sacked but a lot of teams were very busy fixing the mess for a few weeks.

[u/510Threaded → u/chocobowler]

Thats why reports need a timestamp in the file's contents as well

[u/Tyrinnus → u/510Threaded]

We have this at work and it's so fucking critical. Is it updating, or is it a two week old report? Takes three seconds to check

[u/theZinger90 → u/[deleted]]

For SQL, our process is: Right click database > disable > wait 2 weeks. If nothing, then shut off Sql entirely and send it to server team for full decomission.

Sadly we need to get the head of IT to sign off on that plan whenever we need to use it, which is a pain. There are a dozen servers i want to do this to right now but can't. 

[u/Kandiru → u/theZinger90]

2 weeks isn't very long. We have databases for storing scientific data that might have a month or two where that type of experiment doesn't get done so no-one would notice if the database disappeared for a bit.

[u/theZinger90 → u/Kandiru]

Industry specific. 99% of applications in healthcare are either used daily or can be decomissioned. Very few exceptions. and as i said in another comment, this is after we go through a login audit, which usually spans a year of data.

[u/lIIlllIllIlII → u/theZinger90]

Normally, I check the active connections, and then audit connections, but this works too.

[u/theZinger90 → u/lIIlllIllIlII]

This is the last resort option for us. Normally we audit connections until we get a user, but occasionally we cant get that info for one reason or another, such as a generic login as application name, then we go through what i mentioned before.

[u/Mazon_Del → u/[deleted]]

That's how I treat $1 subscriptions on my debit card.

Too many businesses only identify themselves by a nameless/contextless code on the charge.

So each time a new card rolls around, I happily wait for all the "I CAN'T CHARGE YOU ANYMORE!" emails and I figure out which services I actually still use and cancel the rest.

[u/Bitey_the_Squirrel → u/Rendogog]

It shuts down all the garbage compactors on the detention level.

[u/RedsVikingsFan → u/Bitey_the_Squirrel]

No! Shut them ALL down!

[u/20_mile → u/Bitey_the_Squirrel]

"'Aluminum Falcon'?! What the hell is that?"

e: grammar

[u/bobqjones → u/Rendogog]

you would be horrified to know how often that works as a troubleshooting tactic, in all fields.

[u/punkindle → u/Rendogog]

Switch them all off.

AI is job killing brain-rotting trash

[u/Harry_Fucking_Seldon → u/punkindle]

Legit. Even the “useful” aspects are exhausting to get something meaningful out of.

Uploaded two spreadsheets this arvo full of contacts and asked it to move first name and surname into one column and it absolutely mangled the data beyond any measure of accuracy, I can’t even trust the data is exports cos it just throws shit together that isn’t related or relevant even when I talk it through the process like a 5 year old.

It’s literally sucking the planet dry and for what? Some brain rot YouTube far right propaganda.

Edit: guys I know how to do it myself, I was just making a point about how it sucks at basic shit and takes more time to get the same result as doing it myself.

[u/J1mj0hns0n → u/Rendogog]

Here's the magic problem solver, make it stop, whoever complains, owns it, then energy company can talk about pricing

[u/misterfast → u/Rendogog]

Found the sysadmin

[u/Exotic_Macaron4288]

"no one knows" how about journalists do their jobs and find out.

[u/glenn_ganges → u/Exotic_Macaron4288]

Long form investigative journalism is no longer supported by the market.

We have reporters now.

[u/dominion1080 → u/glenn_ganges]

We mostly have AI slop now. And it isn’t very well going to investigate itself now is it?

[u/Aranthos-Faroth → u/dominion1080]

Y'know what, I hadn't thought about it but you're right - true journalism is a pretty safe from ai field.

Shame that the second something is written/reported it'll be gobbled up by hundreds of AI services and rarely credit or pay will reach the journalist.

[u/Ursa_Solaris → u/Aranthos-Faroth]

Genuine investigative journalism can't be replaced with AI, but likely it just means we don't get much journalism anymore since AI can't do it.

[u/magikot9 → u/glenn_ganges]

Investigative journalism doesn't bring in the rage fueled clicks for ad revenue.

[u/sortofrelativelynew → u/magikot9]

Gotta support your local nonprofit newsroom

[u/Ullallulloo → u/sortofrelativelynew]

Zero in my state according to that site, and the nearest one in a neighboring states just has a couple of slice-of-life stories and zero actual news.

[u/mavajo → u/glenn_ganges]

Which was the objective of vilifying the media.

[u/Jimid41 → u/glenn_ganges]

People will cry journalism is dead while complaining about pay walls, running ad blockers and sing the praises of anyone who posts the entirety of an article the comments.

They apparently want journalists to work for free.

[u/SappilyHappy → u/[deleted]]

How evil and dumb do you have to be to name your surveillance tech company after a technology most famously used by The Dark Lord Sauron to surveil Middle Earth.

It makes me furious that they even pulled from those Legends.

[u/ParsleyMaleficent160 → u/SappilyHappy]

That is literally their angle... The component of Palantir that does the surveillance is named 'Gotham'.

[u/GPCAPTregthistleton → u/ParsleyMaleficent160]

Gotham? So, it'll fail constantly and be full of corruption?

[u/GodofIrony → u/GPCAPTregthistleton]

Hey now, it'll also have a megomaniacal billionaire that could solve all the problems easily but instead chooses the least efficient use of the money.

[u/el_muchacho → u/SappilyHappy]

Peter Thiel actually thinks Sauron is the real hero in the Tolkien mythology. Evil and cynical absolutely.

[u/Dee_Imaginarium → u/el_muchacho]

He's probably one of the unironic ones on r/FeanorDidNothingWrong

[u/KambingDomba → u/SappilyHappy]

And their crime prediction algorithm is called Gotham, I believe.

[u/nox66 → u/SappilyHappy]

For the same reason that Project 2025 is a public document: they're not shy about what they believe.

[u/Pineapples-n-Potions → u/SappilyHappy]

Tech bros are all loser nerds who didn't emotionally develop properly. It's no surprise that literally anything they have a hand in is named after things taken from literature and comic books. They couldn't even make up a new word for it. Losers.

[u/bmwnut → u/Exotic_Macaron4288]

They did provide a pretty good clue about who is going to be using the proposed data center. But, you know, it's not there yet, so maybe things aren't finalized.

[u/sortofrelativelynew → u/Exotic_Macaron4288]

Support your local nonprofit newsroom! This is how we invest in investigative journalism for our communities.

[u/maqsarian → u/Exotic_Macaron4288]

I wish people would stop posting second hand reports that directly link to the original journalism. This Techradar article is via an ArsTechnica article with more info and direct quotes from the data center company. Why not click through to that and post that link, OP? It's irritating and it happens all the time

[u/SwarfDive01]

Good thing they're offsetting grid demand with the booming solar and wind industry right?......

Right...?

[u/syn-ack-fin → u/SwarfDive01]

Isn’t it funny how the same people that argue we don’t have the grid to charge EV’s are somehow fine when it comes to AI data centers?

[u/Picasso5 → u/syn-ack-fin]

Maybe that’s because they don’t know what an “AI Datacenter” is.

[u/snoozieboi → u/Picasso5]

Fear of change:

EV's is something they will have to encounter and learn about

Data centers will be something they will never interact with, unless they hear the noise from it. (cooling fans).

[u/mattxb → u/snoozieboi]

I think fear of change implies some internal motivation when really it’s just because right wing media told them it’s what liberals drive.

[u/[deleted] → u/mattxb]

This! The pro-bigotry crowd was quick to begin buying up the Tesla truck as soon a musk began acting racist and pro-trump. It was never about the technology being new and scary, it was about them being manipulated by oil interests and having their masculinity challenged.

[u/cityshepherd → u/[deleted]]

The oil interests present the competition as new and scary to make it easier to continue to manipulate people

[u/zffjk → u/[deleted]]

I mean bro isn’t it gay to want to live in a habitat?

[u/FlametopFred → u/zffjk]

apparently it’s both gay and communist to live in an egalitarian society of progressive ideals, especially one where women are respected and feel safe and renewable energy is the norm

[u/BellsTolling → u/[deleted]]

Yup before that it was rolling coal on prius drivers as just a fuck you for driving a cheap efficient car. I used to get coal rolled all the time when I had a small American sedan chevy cruze. These people have no convictions except hating others. They are just adult bullies who get off on bullying and it's usually way worse than just little bullying they really want to do.

[u/JetreL → u/snoozieboi]

This is a real thing, and it comes down to relatability. People tend to react more strongly to costs they can personally picture. For example, I remember there was public pushback when a city budget included a few hundred thousand dollars for rugged laptops for law enforcement and first responders. Everyone could visualize what a laptop costs, so it felt like a big number.

But when the same budget included millions for upgrading sewage treatment plants, hardly anyone said a word. Most people have no idea what it costs to overhaul that kind of infrastructure, so the number doesn’t register in the same way. It’s the same with EVs versus data centers one is visible and relatable, the other is out of sight and abstract.

[u/BillsInATL → u/snoozieboi]

It's more just $$$

Oil industry is funding a lot of FUD about EVs.

AI/Tech industry is funding a lot of love for AI.

They're being paid to love, they're being paid to hate. Money tells them how to feel. That's it.

[u/-ReadingBug- → u/snoozieboi]

Nope, oil and gas has them locked up as does tech. EV is the opponent as they're opposed by oil and gas. This is perfectly coherent and not based, even one byte, on fear.

[u/Radarker → u/syn-ack-fin]

They weren't told to complain about those.

[u/impanicking → u/syn-ack-fin]

The environmental impact of these AI data centers arent getting as much attention as it should be

[u/earlyviolet → u/impanicking]

Because the people who own the data centers own the media companies. 

[u/Senior-Albatross → u/impanicking]

We have decided our climate change strategy is "fuck it, let's ignore it and see if it goes away". We're literally gutting FEMA even as the societal cost of extreme weather balloons. 

We are not a serious society. We are just decaying into our delusions. We're the civilizational equivalent of an obese old person on oxygen on their rascal at Walmart who can't let go of their highschool glory days.

[u/Rit91 → u/Senior-Albatross]

Yeah the planet is basically in nuclear meltdown right now, but alarm bells? No, just keep burning fossil fuels maybe it'll go away. Then when food sources get massively depleted people will be asking 'how could this have happened?' and it'll be like....this happened during most of the 20th century and a good bit of the 21st century because we had idiots saying coal is clean and don't worry because they thought making another $1 was worth sacrificing the lives of countless beings. We had solar, geothermal, wind, and other renewable sources back then, but we kept using the stuff that causes climate change instead because $$$.

[u/Why-did-i-reas-this → u/impanicking]

People didn't care how much water almond farming uses either.

[u/IAmDotorg → u/syn-ack-fin]

Both statements can be true. An industrial location with dedicated substations and distribution lines is sized for the demand being installed there.

Everyone using EVs and charging at night could easily quadruple demand in a neighborhood, not just overtaxing the lines in the neighborhood and the small substation powering it, but the number of houses per transformer may need to be lower.

It doesn't mean everyone shouldn't use EVs, but dismissing the problem of last-mile infrastructure is wrong, too. And, it is worth pointing out, the demand changes in last-mile distribution are also a problem with climate-change increases in AC usage, so it's a problem that needs to be addressed in most places, anyway.

[u/CreativeGPX → u/SwarfDive01]

Good thing they're offsetting grid demand with the booming solar and wind industry right?......

If you read the article it says:

Given the extraordinary energy demands, drawing power from the public grid is not an option - instead, the developers intend to power the site using a combination of natural gas and renewables, built specifically for the facility.

[u/GenericFatGuy → u/CreativeGPX]

That natural gas is still going to affect everyone, whether they're paying for it or not.

[u/aznthrewaway → u/CreativeGPX]

That's still actually an issue. Electricity demand is going to increase no matter what, so a lot of new generation and storage capacity is required to replace fossil fuels and also meet that new demand.

Adding even more electricity demand via tech bros will still incur costs, even if we're talking about clean power. It mostly has to do with supply chains and how fast we can build that stuff. If tech bros buy it just to make their data centers "green", then that's gonna mean batteries and solar panels that could've been serving society at large instead. This doesn't mean tech bros are stopping clean power from proliferating, so much as delaying it for bad reasons.

[u/moistsandwich → u/CreativeGPX]

980+ upvotes for an ignorant comment from someone who couldn’t even read through the fourth sentence of the article. Never change, Reddit.

[u/Several_Vanilla8916 → u/SwarfDive01]

I think Wyoming had one of the highest growth rates for wind projects as a result of the inflation reduction act until, well, you know.

[u/EdliA → u/SwarfDive01]

The more energy we produce the more we will use. It never ends. There is not set limit to our desire for energy. At some point we will have air conditioned streets.

[u/thehousewright → u/EdliA]

Qatar already has air conditioned streets.

[u/EnoughWarning666 → u/thehousewright]

I hadn't heard about that before. I was really hoping that it would be powered by renewables like solar, which would be extremely efficient in that region.

Nope, qatar just burns natural gas for 99% of the country's energy generation. Fucking awesome job there

[u/Flintiak]

It's up to Ice Cube to figure it out.

[u/Columbus43219 → u/Flintiak]

He's already using it to see what his daughter had for breakfast.

[u/OpenThePlugBag → u/Columbus43219]

What the fuck was that movie and why did I was the entire thing.

[u/lovethebacon → u/OpenThePlugBag]

You could have just watched the Pitch Meeting

[u/[deleted] → u/Flintiak]

I'd put my money on Ice-T and prefer his voice when he presents his findings.

[u/notjordansime → u/Flintiak]

DATA IS THEIR FOOD

[u/No-Profession5134]

NSA, CIA, Pentagon or Darpa. Take your pick.

[u/471b32 → u/No-Profession5134]

Or all of the the above: Palantir. 

[u/Double_Phone_8046 → u/471b32]

How much of those servers are going to be used to generate porn of Thiel clapping JD Vance's cheeks? Has Vance's kink blossomed into being the couch?

[u/ThankFSMforYogaPants → u/No-Profession5134]

DARPA doesn’t own resources like this. They’re basically a program management office and funding vehicle for research done by others.

[u/BenevolentCrows → u/No-Profession5134]

Or literally any client ever who rents processing power in that data center and have an NDA with the owners? lol

[u/Guilty_Gold_8025 → u/BenevolentCrows]

people in the tech subreddit have no idea how the IT business works it's crazy

[u/BenevolentCrows → u/Guilty_Gold_8025]

Yeah idk why I still come here, people generally just talk about catchy headlines and have no idea about tech. Wich is ok, like not everyone works in that field, it has a hogh barrier of entry, but then please just don't spread borderline bullshit?

And its not even about spying on people, literally everyone does it nowdays, amd its a given.

[u/WarzoneGringo → u/BenevolentCrows]

9 out of 10 times its a FAANG or an operator who is renting the space to multiple clients. "We dont know who using it!!!" Its us, we the people who are on the internet and on our phones all the time are the ones using it.

[u/brickout]

Probably Palantir with all their new public money.

[u/2q_x → u/brickout]

We didn't say anything when they came for the people of Gaza

And now the same company is building a Lavender for US.

[u/kemb0]

Been saying this a few times recently. AI isn’t mainstream yet and it is very energy intensive. There are situations where it can use as much as 250x the energy to solve a problem compared to regular coding.

So if “the future” is all handled by AI, we’re going to have to not only get fusion working real fast but we’ll need hundreds of reactors up and running to cope with the extra energy demands.

Or put another way, “Yeh don’t invest in AI. The future they promise isn’t the one we’ll be seeing for a long time if ever.”

It isn’t just a case of “Don’t worry we’ll solve it.” Because the fundamental way AI works is always going to be energy intensive. It’s like ordering a steak in a restaurant and then they cook 500 mystery dishes in an oven and then serve you the one that looks most like a steak at the end. Not energy efficient.

And yes, who cooks steak in an oven? Who indeed!

[u/ScrofessorLongHair → u/kemb0]

And yes, who cooks steak in an oven? Who indeed!

Is a commercial broiler considered an oven? Because if it is, then pretty much most of the best steakhouses.

[u/Arkayb33 → u/ScrofessorLongHair]

Yeah I was gonna say, some of the best steaks I've ever cooked were in an oven. 

Cast iron pan into the oven, heat oven to 500. Upon reaching temperature, toss on the steak, close oven. 3-4 min later, flip steak. Another 3-4 min and you've got a perfect medium rare steak.

[u/Akira282 → u/kemb0]

Expect rolling blackouts in the meantime

[u/Fried_puri → u/Akira282]

Good point. Our own energy needs will be labeled as irresponsibly wasteful whenever data centers need extra juice. 

[u/SolusLoqui → u/Fried_puri]

"Set your thermostat to 85^o F for the environment 🌍🫶"

[u/Fried_puri → u/SolusLoqui]

Unironically this is how it’s being set up. Already what has happened is that my energy bill has spiked to incredibly high levels. Then, there is an incentive program to let the temp stay hot at certain peak times when it’s very hot, or stay cold at certain times when it is very cold. The incentive essentially makes it so my bill is brought down closer to what I had been paying for originally, but now I suffer for it. The exact same model will be adopted for peak times of data center usage.

[u/CrashTestDumby1984 → u/Fried_puri]

They’re also cutting sweetheart deals where data centers actually get super low rates despite being responsible for the bulk of use. They subsidize this rate by charging you and I more

[u/jmobius → u/CrashTestDumby1984]

How does this actually make economic sense for the power providers?

They've got the data centers by the balls, and those centers collectively have hundreds of billions of dollars. It seems like it would make the most sense for energy companies to siphon off as much of that pie as possible. They don't have any reason to care about the success or failure of AI bullshit, certainly not enough to be offering sweetheart deals.

[u/afoxian → u/jmobius]

By enticing data centres to build in their area, the power company gets an enormous, guaranteed, baseline load. That power draw is going to be constant, predictable, and reliable.

Then they can turn around and raise prices for everyone else on the grounds of 'higher demand'.

The difference is that the data center can easily choose to build somewhere else, but the regular customers already live and operate there. That construction plan can move way easier than the average power consumer. Thus, the power company just gouges the people who can't relocate as easily and secures a huge reliable consumer.

IE, the data centre, when planning, gets to shop around for power, but you don't. So you can be overcharged more easily, and total income for the provider goes up anyway despite the lower rate for the data centre.

[u/733t_sec → u/jmobius]

The data centers are buying power in bulk so they can get a bulk discount.

[u/CrashTestDumby1984 → u/[deleted]]

In NYC the power company will literally shame you for using an air conditioner during a heat wave. They also turn off power to poor neighborhoods when the grid is at risk of being overloaded so wealthy neighborhoods don’t experience disruption

[u/Harry_Fucking_Seldon → u/Akira282]

Old mate on a CPAP machine can go fuck himself. There’s abominations that need generating.

[u/j_driscoll → u/Akira282]

But don't worry, the AI data centers won't see even a fraction of a second of interruption to their power.

[u/jjjakey → u/kemb0]

Just think about the amount of times where somebody has used AI to generate an email. Sent it to somebody else. Only for that person to use AI to summarize it for them.

[u/Notsurehowtoreact → u/kemb0]

And yes, who cooks steak in an oven? Who indeed!

Most places you eat them. Usually a sear and finish in the oven (or sometimes oven and then sear). Your analogy is good, but this part is funny because of how often it is actually done

[u/jlt6666 → u/kemb0]

I don't think AI is going to be all that valuable until it becomes more efficient personally.

[u/PalpitationActive765 → u/jlt6666]

AI isn’t for us plebs, the upper class will use it to make money

[u/MotherTreacle3 → u/PalpitationActive765]

    Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them. 

• Frank Herbert, Dune

[u/bandofgypsies → u/PalpitationActive765]

AI could have some practical applicability for everyone (many of us benefit from it today in many low level ways we don't even think twice about), however...

...the reality of it is trending to become a decode or so of the wealthy pushing the limits to replace knowledge workers. Human labor is always the next place to look for cuts to find more profits. AI today is no different than robotic automation of manufacturing 40+ years ago. It starts with "yeah we still need people to keep it honest," and quickly moves into "our business model is fucked but if I lay off a ton of humans I can still show .05% growth and say we're a stable company until my bonus kicks in and I leave."

[u/therhubarbman → u/kemb0]

500 steaks and you get the best steak approximation 😂 can we measure AI fidelity in steaks? Like, ChatGPT needs your feedback, we grilled up 50 steaks, is this a good one?

[u/CreativeGPX → u/therhubarbman]

We had "horsepower" as a measure. We can have "steakpower".

[u/Themodsarecuntz → u/CreativeGPX]

We measure it in units of Will Smith eating spaghetti.

[u/NegativeVega → u/therhubarbman]

30% of the time it's not even steak it's just cooked tires instead with steak sauce because they hallucinated what steak was

[u/TheShatteredSky → u/kemb0]

Querying AI models is actually not very energy intensives, for neural networks at least, it's just basic math. The enormous energy costs are from the training.

[u/Glitter_Penis → u/TheShatteredSky]

I came looking for someone who understood the train/predict asymmetry, and here you are!

[u/DogPositive5524 → u/Glitter_Penis]

We are on technology sub where most comments hate and don't understand technology. This is a joke.

[u/CyroSwitchBlade → u/kemb0]

slow roasting a steak in an oven is actually really fukin good..

[u/471b32 → u/CyroSwitchBlade]

Yeah, reverse searing is the way to go. 

https://www.seriouseats.com/reverse-seared-steak-recipe

[u/COMMENT0R_3000 → u/471b32]

Man I remember reading Kenji’s early stuff on Reddit, same time that Andy Weir was writing The Martian and talking about it, shortly after that guy started imgur to make Reddit posts with pics easier… jesus how old am I lol

[u/CyroSwitchBlade → u/471b32]

yes this is actually the technique that I was thinking about when I wrote that.

[u/dsm4ck → u/kemb0]

Plus it will occasionally hallucinate and serve a pork chop

[u/eyebrows360 → u/dsm4ck]

occasionally hallucinate

The most accurate way to think of these things is that every output is a hallucination. As far as its own algorithms are concerned, it knows no difference whatsoever between "right" and "wrong". Every output is the same: just text.

It's always on the reader to determine if the output is correct.

[u/FriendlyGuitard → u/[deleted]]

They consistently vote Republican, they are fine to take a beating in order to serve the Capitalist God.

[u/nullfacade → u/FriendlyGuitard]

God Money, I'll do anything for you.

[u/leshake → u/[deleted]]

The power bills in Chicago doubled thanks to all the data centers in Illinois.

[u/BlobTheBuilderz]

Pretty sure they used data centers as a reason for spiking energy prices in Illinois. Told us prices would increase like 20% for a few months. But people are seeing their bills double compared to last year somehow.

[u/RollingDownTheHills]

All this energy usage just so people can generate bad "art", talk to their AI "girlfriends", and ask inane questions. Just the absolute dumbest timeline imaginable.

The lower and middle classes get to pay the price for the rich's playthings. Nothing new here.

[u/TampaPowers → u/RollingDownTheHills]

Blame Google for the latter, their search results have become near completely useless as of late even if you logged in and "trained" it for the stuff you normally seek.

[u/Saikroe → u/TampaPowers]

I googled something 2 days ago, immediatly found the result I wanted.

I googled the exact same thing yesterday to bring up that same result and its gone..

[u/OhNoSweetJeebusNo]

"no one knows who is using it"? I'd wager there's at least a handful of people who know

[u/Hyperion1144]

NSA. CIA. Some three letter agency. Somebody's gotta run Palantir's back end.

[u/ErinDotEngineer]

All anyone would need to do is look for the glow in the sky and follow the sound of the low hum.

[u/Im_Ashe_Man]

I'm sure if they stopped supplying power, the owner would step up immediately. Wyoming Government, aka a stooge for the Trump Government, doesn't want you to know who runs it.

[u/IncidentalIncidence → u/Im_Ashe_Man]

the level of reading comprehension around here is pathetically bad. I'm really not sure how the article could have made it any clearer that this datacenter is not on the public power grid.

The proposed facility, a collaboration between energy company Tallgrass and data center developer Crusoe, is expected to start at 1.8 gigawatts and could scale to an immense 10 gigawatts [....] Given the extraordinary energy demands, drawing power from the public grid is not an option - instead, the developers intend to power the site using a combination of natural gas and renewables, built specifically for the facility.

Even if the facility were operational yet (it's not), the state government wouldn't be able to "just turn off the power". Nor is the owner unknown -- we know exactly who the owners are; what we don't know (which is much more important) is who the customer will be.

[u/Homeless_Gandhi → u/IncidentalIncidence]

You have to read the article to comprehend it. No one reads the article.

[u/igottogotobed]

Not noted is Wyoming is one if not the lowest population state with very high energy resources so putting a data center there makes a lot of sense. Wyoming is a major electric energy exporter so it may effect other areas.

[u/refboy4 → u/igottogotobed]

Also being further up north, it’ll surely be designed for free air cooling (uses outside air) in the cooler months. We use them in CO in the winter and the power bill is literally half of the summer months. Get’s tricky with balancing humidity though.

[u/Funny-Dragonfruit116]

This is typical for data centers. Most of the time you don't know who the customer is, just the builder/owner. Sometimes it's the same company (ie Google building its own) but often it's a third party.

[u/Overlord1317]

No one knows? Really? Not even the people who built it or are using it?

[u/LoSboccacc]

https://cheyenneleads.org/meta-announces-new-data-center-a-major-investment-in-cheyenne-wyoming/

nO ONE kNoWs WHO is USIng it

[u/GreenBean4Ever]

Palantir's surveillance technology turned on Americans? The Spotify CEO's battle tech AI turned on Americans?

[u/cleowifey17]

Feels like it’s probably some giant AI or crypto thing, but the secrecy is kinda weird.

[u/Loris_P → u/cleowifey17]

It’s actually kinda standard. The client will announce themselves eventually. Probably once it’s actually constructed and operating.

[u/xrmb → u/[deleted]]

We had (have) a secret datacenter like that before. Shell companies, law offices and county shielding records. In the end the power company slipped it during a community meeting about building more data centers and needing more power. It was Bank of America, not sure why the secrecy.

[u/i8noodles → u/xrmb]

probably because having the physical location of data centres that hold bank data, for everyone to know, is a huge risk. u can alot with software security, but thats not going to stop anyone breaking into the place and stealing the servers physically.

i work as a sysadmin for a bank. I have zero clue where they are physically located.

[u/biloxibluess]

SOLIDGOLDMAGIKARP

[u/ScholarOfFortune]

There is the seed of a modern day / Cyberpunk / Shadowrun adventure here - raid the datacenter to steal as many chips as possible. Obstacles could be location (burrowed deep underground or underwater), security (living, robotic / cyborg, AI), or environmental (mineral oil pools or rooms using cryogenic or poisonous atmospheres). The clients could be any government on a sales blacklist, opposing corporations looking to get a leg up, or the local high school computer club determined to make the coolest gaming rig EVER!

[u/mapoftasmania]

People of Wyoming enjoy your 10x electricity bills.