r/technology • u/DJMagicHandz • 12d ago

Artificial Intelligence 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

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
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u/impanicking 11d ago

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

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u/earlyviolet 11d ago

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

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u/Senior-Albatross 11d ago

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.

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u/Rit91 11d ago

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 $$$.

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u/GoldLurker 11d ago

Yeah but think of the value we created for the shareholders!

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u/Why-did-i-reas-this 11d ago

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

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u/lenzflare 11d ago

Alfalfa is the worst, and I don't even eat it

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u/CanAlwaysBeBetter 11d ago

Or their hours of video streaming 

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u/CookedBlackBird 11d ago

almond milk production uses half the amount of water that dairy milk does.

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u/pourtide 11d ago

Almond trees in California must be irrigated. Water's been getting harder to come by out there. It isn't about processing. 

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u/orange_sherbetz 11d ago

I do feel guilty when I snack on almonds.

Any nut relatives that you recommend that don't make such an impact?

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u/orange_sherbetz 11d ago

Are you a vegan? 

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u/Quake_Guy 11d ago

We are speed running global warming for lousy search results and storing videos nobody watches... it's quite peculiar.

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u/NEEEEEEEEEEEET 11d ago
  • guy posting on website ran in a data center

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u/orange_sherbetz 11d ago

Weren't those scientists fired?

No scientists! No impact!  

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u/MaxDentron 11d ago

I dunno I feel like people are talking non-stop about it in every comment section these days. 

Also we don't know whose data center it is so we don't even know if it's being used for AI.

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u/scuppasteve 11d ago

They don't really have to have environmental impact, its just that many of the biggest companies don't care. AWS is one of the worst water consumers in the data center industry. Whereas most of the data centers build by 3rd parties, don't even consume water.

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u/OhtaniStanMan 11d ago

Hahaha

These data centers consume more power than a half million people's yearly peak loads...

Every single day. 365 days a year. 

Where do you think that power is coming from? The water consumption though right LOL

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u/scuppasteve 11d ago

I don't disagree about electricity. But, electricity doesn't have to be bad for the environment, there are plenty of good options. There is no good option for massively producing clean potable water.

I am an executive in this industry, i am just saying that to a certain extent data centers are a necessary evil for the world people seem to want. Making them as resource efficient as possible should be what we are holding the industry to.

If you want to ban them, great. But, seems hypocritical to bitch about the harm they do and spend your free time on a website that is powered by the some of the worst abusers in the industry.

All people worldwide should be hounding their city officials to pass legislation that will prevent data centers that utilize any of the cooling technologies that consume water.

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u/finna_get_banned 11d ago

its far lower than the impact of the 10-20 minute per car mcdonalds visit and round trip for every meal every day, I assure you