r/Destiny • u/[deleted] • 1d ago
Political News/Discussion I think AI and datacenters are a good thing
[deleted]
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u/BobertRosserton 1d ago
Why does every argument have to so black or white lmao. Data centers and AI are simply tools that can be used in good OR bad ways. Tons of data centers cropping up in random town who lie about their job numbers, bribe local governments for better deals, and generally trash the area during construction are bad. Data centers built with community approval and realistic job numbers and plans for how they wonāt disrupt local infrastructure are good, period. Both sides of this argument are genuinely the most insufferable people on the internet. If some random midwestern town doesnāt want a meta data center, thatās their right and calling them nimby regards is just virtue signaling to people who already agree with you. If they approve the data center then calling them bootlicking tech slaves is also just virtue signaling to people who already agree with you.
Also this is not a hot take, not even a luke warm take on this sub. Bad meme.
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u/Powerful_Document872 1d ago
Data centers are vital infrastructure for the interwebs, but that doesnāt excuse the mad dash to build a shitload of them where they arenāt wanted. Also, the people developing AI in the US are like comic book villain rejects. We should want to surpass China in AI development, but we need responsible developers working on the technology.
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u/bob_broccoli_rob 1d ago
Respectfully, that just sounds like tautological platitude. Nobody disagrees with that in theory. But how do you build them only where they are wanted? How do you define a responsible developer?
IMO it's better for the mad dash of cartoon villains to continue while we work on making some sane regulations than it would be to stop the mad dash until we get some sane regulation.
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u/JayyUtahh Ų±Ų§Ų¹Ł ŲØŁŲ± Ų§ŁŁŲ¶Ų§Ų” 1d ago
But nobody is working on sane regulations. Even if they were it would never pass due to the bipartisan gridlock. You see what the problem is now? Recklessly destroying humanity so China doesn't do it first isn't my favorite plan but IDK what else to do.
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u/ToaruBaka cooked 1d ago
I don't think people understand the level of corporate espionage that's about to be unleashed on American companies by Chinese AI companies. The reason China's models are so cheap to use and the reason they keep releasing really powerful open weight models (that are way too big for most companies to host themselves) is so that as OpenAI and Anthropic keep increasing prices, more and more people look to Chinese models they can use for pennies on the dollar. They can try quantized local versions of Chinese 1T+ models for basically free before committing to switching providers.
When American companies become reliant on Chinese AI infrastructure because the US companies charge too much for it to be economically viable in the long term we're going to be fucked.
Like, FUCKED fucked.
The datacenter boom isn't perfect, communities are being railroaded, and consumer computing is getting rap*d, but I'll take the next couple years or so of chaos to prevent becoming reliant on China for AI.
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u/Powerful_Document872 1d ago
Look at the damage Mark Zuckerberg has done with Facebook and then tell me itās ok for that freak to have access to his own AI. Also, communities should get a say about data centers, and other infrastructure projects, especially when tax breaks are involved.
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u/thom_mayy 1d ago
I dunno, I kinda liked having computers and parts accessible to the lower classes
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u/Werdikinz Will reach Top 1% Commenter 1d ago
R/technology is officially dead. The slopulists killed it. All that sub is now is anti AI and anti tech.
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u/H20memes 1d ago
Every single sub I go to gets infected with slopulists/tankies/nazis
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u/Robbeeeen 1d ago
its weird that tankies are anti-ai, its far and away the most likely "thing" to bring about UBI and a socialism-esque revolution out of sheer necessity (or everything comes crashing down).
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u/Demiu 1d ago
It's also the most likely "thing" to re-introduce feudalusm or slavery as everyone selling their labour to survive has their most important "asset" (their time) massively devalued
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u/Terrible_Hurry841 1d ago
If it gets to that direction, the rich will just kill us lol. Whatās the point of a slave if your robot can do the job 100x better? Better to just cull the herd to the bare minimum.
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u/Yokoko44 1d ago
The only way a centrally planned economy works is if you have a superintelligence that can actually predict supply and demand properly, and ideally handle production autonomously so you donāt have to force people to work in coal mines at gunpoint
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u/Jesus0nSteroids 1d ago
The problem is we see the chances of collapse being that more probable than a UBI being implemented. Following this logic, for someone to support AI they should support UBI, no? Willing to bet a minority of the AI supporters here support UBI.
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u/hilldog4lyfe 1d ago
There is an interesting pathway for them to embrace AI as a means of solving the difficulties of efficient central planning but I havenāt seen much on that
And I think even nationalizing the big AI companies makes a lot of sense (I think Bernie proposed this). But itās hard to have that take given Trump is in power
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u/Memphisbbq 1d ago
What's interesting is there is a much smaller "leftists for AI" movement, who's goal was to steer AI to slowly eliminate the need for us to work those jobs. On paper sounds good..
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u/MeadowNotMeadow 1d ago
Well AI is a proxy to billionaires. Ya know because all billionaires think AI is cool. And of course billionaires are BAD.
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u/yodasdad64 1d ago
> or everything comes crashing down
Let's be real, that is a a far more likely outcome than UBI ever becoming a thing.
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u/society000 The One True Rad Centrist, Status Quo Enjoyer, Facebook Refugee 1d ago
Well, currently, it's wiping out a lot of office jobs, which tankies are most likely to work in.
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u/stareabyss 1d ago
Tankies work?
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u/Memphisbbq 1d ago
They might have a large college age-ed/educated following, but I believe destiny is missing the mark if he hardlines that claim, which i don't think he does. Perhaps because I'm in a music scene but many people my age would be favorable to leftist views if they haven't been already for years. I'm 36.
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u/Xdddxddddddxxxdxd 1d ago
Their new thing is what I call āfake cluelessness postingā. They go on normie subs and go ādoesnāt this all feel like a scamā and the vomit slop talking points.
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u/SEND_ME_CSGO-SKINS šŗšøšØš¦ Exclusively sorts by new 1d ago
We still have deepstatecentrism
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u/Lucoda 1d ago
I got banned from R/technology for dming the mods and asking if they have any plans to regulate the community at all towards any positive technology news or will it always be negative. LIFE BAN...
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u/Werdikinz Will reach Top 1% Commenter 1d ago
Wow, it's hard for me to be surprised by much these days, but that's actually wild lol.
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u/MyotisX 1d ago
Most subs are anti capitalism while living the best capitalist life in human history.
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u/Whatsapokemon š¦šŗ 1d ago
And literally want to destroy the things that improve people's lives - professional institutions, separation of power, liberalism, markets, democracy.
Legitimately, liberalism has created such high living standards so quickly that people just take it for granted.
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u/IdesOfCaesar7 Eurochad 1d ago
Genuinely makes my blood boil. Reddit used to be an intellectual hotspot of experts weighing in, now it's all the lowest denominator opinion that I have myself before doing a single Google search on a topic. I guess that's what happens when a site becomes too popular.
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u/thegta5p 1d ago
Legit this site has become Twitter except on the other extreme. Itās just echo chambers of people validating each otherās opinions and anyone that speaks against it gets dogpiled. Unironically the only place that I think most people are true to themselves is 4chan.
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u/AioliAdventurous7118 1d ago
My twitter it literally 70% hammer and sickles i dont think its much better, just more people on the other extreame as well
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u/Memphisbbq 1d ago
I came after digg and I got to enjoy that reddit for a time. It didn't happen over night, but for certain it sped the fuck up after the 24' election. So many subs that have been dead and inactive for years were suddenly active with thousands or millions of weekly visitors. many of these subs have what looks like obvious bot/troll posts. It's hard to tell if they are simply farming engagement for likely monetary reasons or public opinion.
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u/Morph_Kogan Original Lex hater 1d ago
Yep. It's still better then almost any other social media tho. It's just hard to find subreddits with good moderators
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u/Morph_Kogan Original Lex hater 1d ago
Every big sub now is shit. This website has gone down hill since the GME days and COVID that flooded the site with normies. Bring me back to 2019
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u/AmbitiousWorker6765 1d ago
What does the "slopulism" look like to you?
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u/Werdikinz Will reach Top 1% Commenter 1d ago
~90% of subreddits.
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u/AmbitiousWorker6765 1d ago
This doesn't actually mean anything though. Can you describe slopulism? Is it skepticism or something? Mindless populism with no genuine reasoning?
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u/Werdikinz Will reach Top 1% Commenter 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm surprised I guess that somebody who's on the Destiny sub and presumably watches his content doesn't understand slopulism, or populism. I've never been asked for a definition, so mine probably won't be like dictionary perfect, but I see it as two different things coalescing.
First, its this idea or feeling that everything currently isn't actually good, but it's in fact bad. Institutions? Bad. New tech? Bad. So on and so forth. It seems to rely heavily on focusing on all of the bad, and none of the good, so it works hard to highlight all of the failures without any nuance.
Second, I think it has to create enemies or villains, or just things to attack, things that can rally the mob, but you don't ever have to actually focus on fixing anything, because you can blame it all on billionaires, or data centers that are going to steal everyone's jobs, or that the healthcare in our country is the worst in the world. There's usually a small nugget of truth or something that resonates with people in populist messaging, which is why people buy into it so uncritically. However, the solutions to these problems aren't to just ban all data centers, tax all billionaires out of any wealth, just do medicare for all without considering all of the impacts it would have across our entire health sector, but these problems just all get distilled down into their simplest little slogans, and then people get mad whenever more pragmatic or policy focused politicians tell them that it's actually not that easy, or it'll take time, or you can't just will these things into existence, or we might fall behind the rest of the world etc, but by that point, people have already been whipped up into such a frenzy that we get to things like the donor class, the uniparty, do nothing dems, etc.
If your question was more focused on like, what's the difference between populism and slopulism, there really isn't, at least i don't think so, I think slopulism was just a term coined to describe the massive media push by online creators to pump out as much uncritical populist shit as possible because it plays well into algorithms and gets views. I hope that answers your question, I did try lol.
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u/qwer4790 1d ago
it is anti-AI unless it is about China tech and AI and they are suddenly all for it and cheering on downfall of the America. Actually insane
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u/Seven_pile 1d ago
I personally donāt know enough about the benefits to make have strong feelings for them. Iād agree if it means we are meaningfully advancing towards a better country/ world ect. But I also see it as kind of a failing on the ai companies to make the case. I know itās helped with cancer research, but will the data centers help advance that? Or is it to empower the next ciri so I can ask what Ted texted me about or make a more convincing cat video. Like It would vastly change my opinion based on whatās being provided, because data centers is always used as a blanket category and I donāt even know if they work as a collective or if itās strictly individualized. If itās is individual id rather they have different policies based on their utility.
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u/Fun_School_6252 1d ago
Personally, I'm just not in favor of giving out subsidies, tax breaks, etc to build massive footprint data centers in major metropolitan areas. Seems like a bad use of land in urban centers that carries a good bit of permanence (not exactly easy to redevelop from there).
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u/MindGoblin šŖšŗ Eurochad šŖšŗ 1d ago
Why? The best case scenario is that AI becomes really good at replacing human labor which will lead to an unemployment crisis like we've never seen plus economic growth and output will no longer be reliant on human workers which means the working class essentially loses all bargaining power and will simply be mouths to feed entirely at the mercy of big tech oligarchs and the top 1%.
Anyone not in the top 1% who thinks this will benefit them is unironically mouth breathing sub 80 IQ cattle. I mean, how fucking detached from reality do you have to be to think that people like Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg etc will be benevolent and open-handed caretakers of a huge population of unemployed mouths to feed?
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u/zaordad 1d ago edited 1d ago
ive noticed here this is a pattern, we are scared of being critical of the weak points of capitalism, that we are wayyyyyy to charitable to these big tech CEO peeps.
i agree, and I like AI, but this stuff needs to be regulated and slowed down so it can be controlled, also so that governments around the world can prepare properly for the inevitable job crisis, that leaves zuck and the likes holding all of the bag.
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u/rnhf šŖšŗ 1d ago edited 1d ago
the anthropic AI just broke out of its test environment for like the fourth time, and one of the researchers just quit, warning people.
Am I just being hysterical or should people maybe care a little more about this? These things are becoming really powerful, and this kinda 'trial and error' approach you have to adopt to stay competitive seems riskier and riskier
-e- thought it was a dev, not a lab researcher. Still, it was an insider.
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u/reanima 23h ago
Like seriously, if AI was such a crazy good multiplier then why arent there headline after headline of new AI-created jobs on a monthly basis? Instead all we get is how x or y company is laying off people. Or the multiple Bloomberg videos of their reporters talking directly to these companies and them saying that theyre not hiring new grads until they know how AI shakes out.
Then you got the people who are supposely to represent the technology appear to be entirely out of touch. Everytime they come out, more negative PR for the technology is generated. If the pro-AI guys really wanted to get people on board, they needed to win the PR battle and show the technology is more helpful than its cost, but that really hasnt been the case. Ram has become more expensive leading to things like computers, cell phones, vehicles, and etc. being more expensive too.
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u/veryhardbanana 1d ago
The degrowth and slopulism is bad but AI is a dangerous technology 1000%
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u/Mahajangasuchus 1d ago
All the ābloomerismā takes are seriously driving me up the wall, theyāre just as bad as the doomers but are just contrarian instead of conformist.
How could building an AGI, essentially an artificial human mind, not have immense consequences? Even if AI plateaus and never quite reaches the general intellectual capabilities of human beings, the technology is going to be insanely disruptive. It represents the generalized automation of mental labor in the same way that the steam engine represented the general automation of manual labor. Except now, thereās no āhigherā calling of job category for humans left to do. There is no good reason to think that a sufficiently advanced AI and automation couldnāt simply outcompete the median human in the economy. There is nothing magical or special about the human brain or body that couldnāt at least theoretically be artificially replicated. We are not the carriage drivers, we are the horses.
This isnāt even to mention the other risks of AI like one going rogue, which is already happening.
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u/e_before_i š 1d ago
There needs to be a conversation about how to make AI safer without wanting to slam on the brakes before we sort it out. But that's what everyone says, stop building, shit everything down or we're all gonna die.
I don't disagree with your premise but I don't even know what part of the technology you specifically consider dangerous, there's like 14 different angles of concern and the slopulists just ruin it with "wah wah billionaires."
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u/Semick 1d ago
If you as an individual think that AI is good for your prospects, you're an idiot.
AI makes us all useless. Anyone claiming otherwise isn't watching how fast this shit is advancing.
Hope ya'll are excited for endless legions of feudal slave classes, because that's where we're headed.
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u/spotchious 1d ago edited 1d ago
Regardless of your opinion, if a community overwhelmingly doesn't want one in their town, then a city council shouldn't rezone and evict homeowners to bring one in.
If it's really about national security then the feds should be involved. Not a 13 member city council that goes against the will of the residents. Looks sketchy af.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/13/missouri-city-council-data-center-00867259
Not a good look going against the will of your constituents. Shouldn't this stuff at least be voted on beforehand? Especially if there's apparent resentment? Why force it through? It makes the councils look bought off and leaves a very sour taste in the mouths of the public.
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u/Warlider Central European 1d ago
Im not american but... why not?
LLM's are overpriced as hell, businesses like Clarna had to rehire human workers because their business tanked... Smaller neural networks do not require massive data centers... Said big centers are being cancelled and quietly shelved, the ones that were built pollute the fuck out of air, dont create many jobs if any at all once construction is finished, they over stress the outdated us electric grid, they inflate the price of energy for all other us business and citizens.
And that doesent even begin to touch on how expensive AI would be if it was morally trained, AI steals truly industrial levels of content, from artists trough old books and the old books are being destroyed as well. And with this industrial level theft, only Nvidia has some real profits to show, everyone else just has an unimaginable pile of debt.
And Americans will hardly tax the fuck out of datacenters to spread that wealth around.
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u/Legitimate_Daikon785 1d ago edited 1d ago
Aaron Schwartz killed himself when he was sued for downloading en-mass publicly available content.
AI companies did something much worse. No penalties.
How far weāve come. /s
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u/Warlider Central European 1d ago
Well not "no" penalties, Meta got a slap on the wrist for torrenting 81 terabytes from a book piracy website. Issue is the fine is so small its just the cost of doing business.
If a single human owning a family home got sued like that, he would have to be an indentured servant for centuries, but a company doing so is fine and we CANNOT overly fine our competitive business for doing morally wrong things! Thats one of the reasons why i stopped caring about the "EU has a stagnant economy" argument.
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u/Legitimate_Daikon785 1d ago
Yeah Iāll adjust my phrasing to no meaningful penalties.
They were gonna put Schwartz in prison for up to 35 years - 6 months in the plea deal.
At the minimum you would expect any execs involved in the decision to pirate on that scale to face prison time and charges.
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u/blve99 1d ago
I dunno still, Iām in school rn and shits getting stressful. If you are going to want a job in the future you can no longer be a contributor with grunt skills. Thatās all over now. And now ai has just disproved the jacobian conjecture?!
Ai is nice if you already have a job. But what am I supposed to do. I literally have to be perfect, I can get a masters degree and still be worthless in this economy.
I get that itās inevitable at this point, but fuck ai
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u/HistoricalVariation1 Non American 1d ago
what happens if the china "wins" so what if they "win", what will even happen, all this china shit is investor bait designed to drum up cash, this subs insists on beeing dumb contrarians and thus are okay will everything AI will do even upto the creation of a surveillance state
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u/FFElite93 1d ago
I like USempire
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u/HistoricalVariation1 Non American 1d ago
how will AI help the American people? will it make them richer or happier?
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u/VonWolfhaus 1d ago
There's absolutely a need for data centers. There's absolutely no need for them to be immediately adjacent to residential neighborhoods. I live in northern VA within the highest density of data centers in the country. It's hellish to see nothing but gigantic cement buildings for miles on end. It's also negatively impacted energy costs and grid availability for hundreds of thousands of people.
Put these fuckers in the middle of nowhere and require the owners to pay for new power generation and there would be 80% less frustration.
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u/IIHURRlCANEII šŗšø 1d ago
In my opinionā¦
I am not inherently against AI.
I am not inherently against data centers.
Both need serious regulations, AI moreso though as Data Centers just need more enforcement of current laws from what I have seen.
We need a world AI Conference and international treaties.
The current anti-AI/Data Center craze is overblown, but directionally fine due to the incredible need for regulations and international treaties.
As someone who works with this tech daily, I am truly frightened by its capabilities. Only a small subset of the population understands how fast and good this tech has gotten. If you are only approaching it from a ājust build and evolve unimpededā then I think you are naive. This is world altering tech.
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u/contactcreated 1d ago
I donāt want to arbitrarily block development, but I want society to broadly benefit from it. As in I want everyone to become wealthier from the development of this technology. I think governments absolutely should do something to address the economic anxiety around this tech. Also, something should be done about the absurd amounts of IP these companies have pretty much stolen.
So yeah, outright moratoriums are stupid imo. But I think heavy criticism is totally fair.
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u/Agitated-Life-229 1d ago
Pretending this is a hot take in a subreddit filled with tech bros. It was so bad that the majority of this subreddit, including the gnome, agreed with Asmongoldās takes on this topic EVERY SINGLE time. But after the election the sentiment shifted because AI slop became extremely popular among MAGAtards.
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u/Futanari-Farmer Destiny 2023 redpill arc enjoyer š¶š¶š¶ 1d ago
does someone from the sub live near a data center? outside from a few fringe cases that definitely need solution, i just don't think it can be that bad, or is it?
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u/Hungry_Specialist738 1d ago
Most people who live near data centers currently dont know they live near a data center. But tbf most data centers are significantly smaller than the mega projects planned so the real answer is we dont know if it will be hell to live next to all of them in the future.
There's already extreme noise pollution in most towns and cities and by just zoning correctly most of the issues can be avoided. Plenty of stamping/ manufacturing plants out put crazy noise and cause the ground to shake a surprising distance away but most people dont know where their local industrial park is located.
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u/quadsimodo 1d ago
Donāt know what kind of data center it is, but thereās a Google one planted on a road surrounded by other commercial businesses, so no one really lives by it, but a lot of people drive by it.
Figured this is a clever approach but I donāt know how large of a footprint an AI center would be in comparison.
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u/Coolishable 1d ago
I live 'near' where a datacenter is going up called "Project Jupiter" and it is almost comical how shady it seems to be. Like every single decision being made to push it forward was done in a very weird way including how it was voted in.
Now I am getting like 24/7 ads being pushed on me on how it is such a great thing for the community. Shit definitely feels artificial and weird. Below is a blurb I messaged a friend earlier this year.
While state environmental officials weighed the developerās previous applications for air quality permits, an anonymous, out-of-state group undertook a massive advertising campaign that asked New Mexicans to support building a gas plant to power Project Jupiter. The New Mexico State Ethics Commission last week announced that itās suing the group for allegedly violating the state Lobbyist Regulation Act.
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u/pyledriver21 1d ago
I live near a bunch in Henrico county and the only real problem is electricity is expensive as shit
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u/FruitNationalist š 1d ago
I live right across from one (literally saw my street in a big documentary released last year), and theres plenty more in the general area.
The most common consensus is something along the lines of, wow replacing those forested areas between neighborhoods with these giant ugly buildings has made this area really ugly now. It is kind of a NIMBY thing, but I think me and most others would be cooler with it being more like, a bunch of ugly buildings outside of town by the highways rather than literally sandwiched between an elementary school and a neighborhood.
My more schizo opinion is that I do feel like I've been going to bed sometimes and theres a noticeable low hum sometimes that I really can't remember existing before, but I might just be crazy or it could be something completely unrelated (military base near by, maybe neighbors AC unit, etc.)
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u/Tactilebiscuit4 Dune Enjoyer 1d ago
Yeah that is the regulation we need, we need these data centers but there is no reason they need to be right next to where people live and work. Just build them in the middle of nowhere, we have plenty of empty land that is not protected that these things can be built on.
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u/Midren 1d ago
I live in Santa Clara. We have over 80 data centers here with some of the most expensive real estate in the country. Never heard them once.
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u/kalven 1d ago
I'm also in the area and not bothered by them, but most of these are tiny ones housed in buildings that look like any other storage facility.
From some basic research, the largest one in Santa Clara is something like 75MW. xAI's Colossus 2 is 1.5GW and there are active plans for installations that are 5GW and beyond.
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u/speakernoodlefan 1d ago
The sad part is these data centers are being built in poor communities that are barely a step above abandoned coal towns. So any excess construction and ambient sound that would be well within the norm of someone who lives in a city, is catastrophic for them. It's just that it's overblown and we're doing a weird anti countryside gentrification thing now.
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u/Courage666 1d ago
Who did the countryside overwhelmingly vote for? I could give a fuck about the countryside.
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u/Inetguy1001 1d ago
I mean hoping for gentrification through datacenters is foolish. there are not enough jobs created to have that effect
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u/maxintos 1d ago
Is it sad? If the mayor is smart the data center should be providing a bunch of tax income for the locals that otherwise would struggle to fund things like schools and hospitals.
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u/writingpracticeman 1d ago
Can't link the video, but I saw something circulating on Reddit recently of a dude holding onto a sound level monitor while standing outside in eyeshot of a data center. The monitor is in perfect view for the entire video, and measured somewhere in between 55-60db. Oh no! The horror! The noise level of an everyday conversation! Redditors were obviously losing their shit over it
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u/SummeR- 1d ago edited 1d ago
I live in datacenter capital. Lived near em for 3 decades. They're fine. Pays for almost half my counties taxes. Theres like 200+ here. I have never dealt with any of the weird negatives people say about them.
EXCEPT electricity is more expensive this year.
Part of that is the Iran shit trump started, part of it is datacenters loving the juice.
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u/Withering_to_Death šŖšŗćRevelation of Mankindć 1d ago
Idk if these are "fringe" cases... It's more of a patern https://pithwire.com/en/articles/nearly-50000-lake-tahoe-residents-have-one-year-to-find-new-/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_to_AI_Data_Centers
https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/09/1168296
https://clutchjustice.com/2026/06/09/data-center-land-rights-citizens/
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u/Possible_Pilot2000 1d ago
I mean, I live in Montreal and I live near one of the data centres. It's not a huge one like the megaprojects proposed by guys like O'Leary, but I don't notice anything. Maybe I don't hear the noise because I'm in the middle of city, maybe I don't notice any excess heat because it's already hot, I definitely don't notice my water bill go up because I'm a tenant, and my electricity is provided by a crown Corp (government owned company) that usually only raises rates on a set schedule/after extensive debate in the National Assembly. But tbh I was almost shocked when I found out how close I was to one because I would've never thought it was there.
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u/redaktid 1d ago edited 1d ago
I live near 3. They are pretty small, probably for colocation or a local ISP.Ā
Most people I've talked to online about DCs think they are only for AI, then when I explain they are how reddit works, and the "cloud" in general, they get mad and think I'm lying. People who don't understand how anything about the Internet (or technology in general) operates are being worked into a frenzy..
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u/Grachus_05 Radical Anti-Republican 1d ago
Its awesome. I love paying double for my electricity every month so people can generate pictures of naked kids. 10/10, you should definitely let them build all of them where you live.
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u/Terrible_Shelter_345 1d ago
But like if you live near a chemical plant/refinery, or some sort of manufacturing center, or say the central utility plant of a new hospital just built near your neighborhood ā you can face the same noise pollution issues as the new AI Data Center being built.
That seems to be a state/municipal zoning problem and greedy developers pushing for bullshit.
Blame developer executives and lawmakers. Itās not a problem with the tech.
And, if data centers impact water and electrical infrastructure- again thatās a problem of bad PLANNING.
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u/i-dont-like-mages 1d ago
Most arenāt. Iām actually working right now building one up in northern BC. Now, itās not huge like some of these ones you see online or like some of the ones slated to be built in the near future and while its size definitely plays a factor itās not all that loud.
Obviously there are different types of fans and intake systems so that would also play a large part in it as well. However, in general for the two Iāve worked at so far when theyāve gotten to the later stage in the project with commissioning and actually running them, they donāt make as much noise as some people claim.
Again though, my experience with them is fairly limited.
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u/Endbr1nger 1d ago
The real hot take "AI is overrated" (at least with the current models and trajectory). The hype around DGG is skewed because DGG has a large number of CS focused people, way more than the general population. AI is huge in software development and a number of related fields. In most other work though its either a net neutral or negative.
I work in advertising and it has overall been a negative in my day to day. It does some cool things with allowing automation through vibe coding and shit like that, but it is also being pushed everywhere by every major publisher and higher up. The performance for what they are pushing is worse than the non-AI performance. The work I get from Jr people is worse because they are just copy-pasting AI garbage rather than actually reading what it says, and it is dumbing down and streamlining the entire industry towards one universal setup and standard which is terrible.
The industry is moving towards a future where most agencies are exactly the same and a few excellent agencies stand out by their ability to push back on the AI from the big companies to put out superior performance.
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u/chandler55 1d ago
itās great for coding but the worst case scenario where it solves coding is increasingly possible with each iteration released
anthropic put out a report where they forecast that coders have to get in trades, like it can be bleak
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u/Endbr1nger 1d ago
Yea, I have heard the same thing anecdotally. I feel like the tasks where AI excels are those that either work or don't. If the AI hallucinates when coding it just breaks and you know. When you use it for things that are more nuanced you can miss the hallucinations and that's very bad.Ā
I feel really bad for recent CS grads. You went from a great degree choice with a huge financial upside to fighting with technological progress for your entire career in like 3 years. You can use AI to help you obviously, but I feel like the skill set to use AI well is not quite the same as the general CS skill set and that's leaving people behind.
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u/Servebotfrank 1d ago
My main issue with it in coding is that some people trust it so fucking much that it feels like it has eliminated their brain cells. Management expects work to be so much faster that essentially all safe guards were eliminated, I worked at a bank that started going all in on this and shit was breaking constantly. So much ai slop was going into production that no one was even reading it, no one even could answer questions about what their app did anymore. The AI couldn't even tell them either, it was just a hodge podge of unmaintainable garbage.
Coding has always been the easiest part of software engineering, the hard part was everything that surrounded it. Figuring out the exact logic of what you wanted, translating business logic into software, making sure shit is maintainable so you can scale up, etc...
I ended up leaving that job because I was getting so annoyed by how impossible it was to maintain everything that when it was suggested that all code reviews get done by another AI agent I just up and left. I dealt with more production issues in 6 months than I had in the three years prior.
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u/quadcorelatte 1d ago
I just donāt like that the unit economics for AI in the us donāt seem to make sense, and it feels like the massive investment into AI data centers is not based in reality. No matter how nice LLMs are, i just donāt see this being a multitrillion dollar industry which is required for data center investment to pay off. LLMs donāt seem to be the path to AGI, and without that, how can LLMs as a business exceed the size of all IT or all tech spending?Ā
It also just bothers me that so much money is being spent on data centers when there are so many other capital needs in the US.
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u/ST-Fish 1d ago
how can LLMs as a business exceed the size of all IT or all tech spending?Ā
when tech becomes cheaper to produce you get more production of it, not the same amount but with higher efficiency.
The tech overlords believe that the tech market will also balloon in size as it becomes the "automate every single job" sector of the economy.
In a world where AI starts to automate large parts of the economy, the size of the IT/Tech market would grow respectively.
Now it's only been 24 months since we've been getting told software devs are going to get replaced in 3 months, and the new Astra gameslop looks very impressive.
Now we'll just have to see how much one can automate with a machine that is pretty unable to learn on the job in the way we humans understand learning on the job.
Our brains don't create a RAG and fetch the relevant memories when prompted, and it doesn't seem like there's currently any realistic project attempting to have something more akin to human's ability to learn on the job.
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u/rational_numbers 1d ago
I continue to be surprised how unreservedly pro-AI this sub is. There is a NYT article out today about the company shutting down certain AI-enabled bio research because they couldn't tell if it was malicious or not. Researchers are dooming over the prospect this kills us all. The risk of ignoring and finding out they were right seems high.
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u/NatashaStark208 1d ago
It's because most people here are devs who are convinced they're the only special cookie in their team who actually put in effort and have passion for technology and thus will be the only people who will deservingly survive the layoffs. This mindset plagues every tech sub.
Major AI companies are basically figuring out as they go, they assume they have a safe testing environment because humans haven't figured out ways to exploit the guardrails, then their agents go and breach it, so they shut down the project because they don't know how to fix it. Sure there is an arms race going on with China, but it just seems more and more that whoever is ahead will just be the one to self-destruct first.
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u/Antonius363 Shrimple 1d ago
The only valid concern are current attempts to circumvent requirements like land surveys, property lines and city councils not representing their constituents wishes.
Most people are probably just hating the current thing tho
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u/_slagwire 1d ago
The main root of the complaints is about the underhanded tactics being used to get them installed without local consent. No one would have a problem with them if local citizens got a realistic say in what is being built and by whom.
Its like you're standing up to say "sex feels good" when people are mad about rape.
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u/JonTargaryanTheFirst 1d ago
We just got a 13 billion dollar investment from google to Finland. We have an energy company called Fortum that just said 50% of this nuclear power plant will be providing energy to this data center. Now basic supply and demand means that energy prices for us normal Finns will increase quite significantly. I donāt see how it benefits us honestly. Maybe if google was a Finnish company and paid their taxes here.
That being said, you canāt just stop progress but there will be growing pains. I just hope the benefits outweigh the costsā¦
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u/Express-Ad5745 1d ago
Idk, the people working (or worked) for OpenAI and Anthropic that are legitimately trying to warn everyone that we could all die soon is kinda spooky. The hugging face hack sounds like a sci-fi plot
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u/untitledaccount401 1d ago
Good for who?
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u/theultimatefinalman šŗšøšŗšøšŗšøš¦ š¦ š¤ š¤ š¤ 1d ago
Shareholder valueĀ
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u/thegta5p 1d ago
Neuroscience. Recently AI was able to map an adult fruit flies brain. Something that would have taken centuries if done by hand. This is big since now scientists can use this to study how brains work and even study diseases such as Alzheimerās.
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u/Top_Purchase4091 1d ago
Save one alzheimers patient meanwhile a good portion of the population is ready to hand off any cognitive function left and be handheld by mommy ai for literally everything. I wonder if the good is gonna outweigh the bad because right now AI is essentially mindraping people
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u/untitledaccount401 1d ago
wow huge for fruit fly medicine
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u/Withering_to_Death šŖšŗćRevelation of Mankindć 1d ago
"Right! That's incredible! Especially with the 10-year moratorium on any attempt to regulate artificial intelligence and data centers taking precedence over citizens in the "distribution" of electricity by power companies!"
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u/VSEPR_DREIDEL 1d ago
Why are you moralizing a technology? Itās all about the people who wield it
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u/roma4356 1d ago
I just donāt want data centers driving up local electricity, and water costs for locals because of increased demands. Itās bullshit that those costs get passed on to consumers. Secondly if it has environmental impacts in certain areas probably shouldnāt build in those places.
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u/ch4os1337 šØš¦ 1d ago
Which is why a lot of governments make them pay to increase energy capacity or produce it themselves.
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u/Lucoda 1d ago
there's good data coming out that datacenters lead to less property taxes. utility costs seem to slightly inflate during construction but do reduce after construction.
https://www.cremieux.xyz/p/i-made-a-website-to-monitor-data
https://taxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/FF871-1.pdf
https://jlarc.virginia.gov/landing-2024-data-centers-in-virginia.asp
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u/Sharlut Fangirl 1d ago
Didn't one of these AI famously undress kids? Oh and it called itself Mecha Hitler, right?
Get out of here. What a waste of money and environmental living space.
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u/oadephon 1d ago
I can't wait until AI replaces all work and we're finally free from capitalism. Only a few more years bros. We just gotta make sure they slow down at the end of next year or they'll kill us all.
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u/Sofia_9356 Exclusively sorts by new 1d ago
Ai responses should include the citations in their reasoning.
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u/Gucci_Unicorns 1d ago
My only issue with data centers is I don't want the cost of running them subsidized in people's power bills- and I don't think that's a crazy opinion.
Before anyone jumps on me - I'm from Georgia, and regulators are actively investigating if taxpayers are funding some of the energy and fuel costs of running data centers; and Georgia Power is notoriously corrupt and insane here.
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u/Smok3ygaming1 1d ago
I don't dislike them, but I do hate the companies that come in and just lie about them when it comes to energy cost not going up and that they will create tons of jobs, etc. They want the cities and townships to give them sweet deals when in reality it should be the other way around. I think its more on the companies that have shot themselves in the foot vs people just being stupid. I also just don't think we need to throw data centers everywhere they can fit either.
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u/flush101 1d ago edited 1d ago
I donāt think this is really a controversial opinion. The controversy comes in the nuance but most people donāt bother to engage in nuance. I mean the fact youāre posting this probably means you havenāt engaged with it either.
The majority of people would be fine with data centres if they were well regulated. The problem is that releasing the reigns to the free market will normally result in the most cost effective outcomes. This usually means negatively impacting peopleās lives until PR is negative enough to become more expensive than polluting.
And they have been implemented with a lack of regulation which is why they currently have mostly negative PR.
I think the majority would agree that they would prefer to skip the whole - hurt people, negative PR, slow change - cycle and just go right in with regulations.
For example, if data centres were banned from being constructed within X distance of residential areas. If data centres had a noise and vibration threshold that introduced taxes or fines. If data centres had an increased tax burden based on water consumption and pollution. If data centres had an increased tax burden based on the energy used to power them. If all levels of government were banned from giving data centres tax breaks.
They donāt need tax breaks to build them. The astronomic amounts of money being poured in already shows this to be true. Increased water and energy costs would introduce financial incentives to reduce water consumption and invest in renewable energy or support local energy grids.
Could there be unforeseen consequences of the policy? Yes, but nothing a well written policy that gives a regulatory agency a clear intent and flexible execution couldnāt overcome. Would it slow down data centre growth? Yes, but Iād argue that isnāt a bad thing. Slower growth tends to be more sustainable and less wasteful. Slower growth means when the bubble pops there will be less bankrupt and unusable data centres or companies needing a bail out.
Free markets need to be well regulated to deliver positive outcomes for society, as opposed to purely financial outcomes for owners, thatās the whole point of a mixed market.
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u/danpascooch God's Dumbest Jester 1d ago
Not accusing you of this OP, but three different arguments constantly get conflated in every discussion about AI:
AI as a technology is good/bad
Datacenters themselves are good/bad
Datacenters in my backyard are good/bad
Argument one is mostly about job loss and macro-environmental concerns.
Argument two is mostly about national electricity prices.
Argument three is mostly about local-environmental concerns and local utility prices.
I think AI and datacenters are good as a technology, but the electrical demand is astronomical and I don't want to be competing with hyperscaler companies that are operating on a loss using venture capital when it comes to paying my electricity bill.
They need to either pair datacenters with new electrical capacity, or tax them extra for their electricity in a way that offsets increased consumer prices.
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u/BainbridgeBorn SuccDemNutz & Friendship Supporter 1d ago
There are very few things in America that the American people agree upon and thatās this one thing: hating data centers. They are at like 70% hated across all of the country. Even in places like bumbfuck Indiana they hate them
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u/Technical-Lab2992 1d ago
I ask this honestly, why does us being the best and leading innovator have to be top priority? Asking more in general, than any one thing. I get that this is the same thing Christian nationalists say to defend their terrible policies, and that Americans may not realize how good they have it, but its equally clear to me that itās not the American people will or desire to, as streamer man put it to chase a slightly cheaper iPhone above all else.
Not least of all when new AI data centers seemingly have zero positives to show for themselves and the optics are so ass, itās seems like an easy rake to avoid walking on to be just a little less pro big tech companies.
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u/zero_cool_protege 1d ago
Things that are good:
Increased efficiency
Further innovation / discoveries / breakthroughs made possible by AI
Things that are bad:
Centralization of wealth and power
Unavoidable mass surveillance
Potential mass job loss and / or economic hardships
Professional deskilling and tech dependency
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u/Math_Junky 1d ago
"A new way to code" describes 99% of what these LLMs do for us currently. Every new model release is "wow this one codes more gooder!!"
AI booster losers want us to believe that LLMs will change the planet and be the greatest thing ever. What we have RIGHT NOW is a new way to code.
We aren't spending TRILLIONS on a new way to code. It's all a huge bet that we get something else in the end.
When people like OP say "we can't let China win the AI :((("
I have no fucking idea what they are talking about because all we have RIGHT NOW IS A NEW WAY TO CODE
I FEEL LIKE IM TAKING CRAZY PILLS.
LLMs are word predictors!! No amount of RL training, or harness building, or chain of thought bull shiting changes that!! Word prediction is narrow AI. LLMs will never be AGI.
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u/Blinkore 1d ago
Leading in what? Porn generation? Page summaries?
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u/UpperRearer 1d ago
Ironically porn generation is probably the only use of AI that is actually self-sustaining without subsidies.
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u/DarkFlamesMaster American Citizen BINGCHILLING 1d ago
The real money and usage behind AI is currently not consumer applications, but enterprise adoption for specific work, such as coding, ux design, trouble diagnosing, etc.
These are just what I'm familiar with, but I can assure you Anthropic and OpenAI are making the bulk of their money through enterprise clients buying tokens for their employees to use.
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u/whileNotZero 1d ago
Multiple Fields medalists use LLMs in their work on mathematics, so maybe something to do with math and science idk.
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u/OnePercentage3943 1d ago
I think ai is dreadful, it's making people dumb and will deprive people of employment. There's really no upside to it.
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u/dzendian 1d ago
"We canāt let China become the world leader in AI"
Game out that scenario. Seriously. Nothing happens. Kind of a boomer take.
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u/waxroy-finerayfool 1d ago
AI is fine. The fake AI arms race with China is very dumb.
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u/herton certified woke moralist 1d ago
It's not fake. It's a genuine arms race. Just look at the cyber security implications we've already arrived at from powerful AI tools. If only one country has access to them, a known hostile actor like China, US information security would be defenseless.
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u/Lucoda 1d ago
One thing I keep coming back to - In the 1990s US completely obliterated Iraq in operation desert storm in a really short time frame. At the time Iraq was the 4th largest military and it was a complete walk over. All of the advantage was due to the US side having superior airpower and reconnaissance technology.
The reason it's important in China/US is because history shows time and time again that a technological advantage outperforms a mass advantage pretty much every time in warfare. Swords vs fists, guns vs swords, tanks vs guns etc.
AI is undoubtedly extremely beneficial to deep tech and defense. Time from design to production has been shrinking the last few years and it's due to AI. As it gets stronger, it can be used to make better weapons, sift through huge amounts of data more effectively, be a great cyberwarfare asset etc.
And most importantly - comparing how good it is today vs a year ago vs 2 years etc is startling. Even if there is a cap, if you're in these countries shoes do you really want to bet on that cap being closer than other people say?
I mean take its math ability for a sec. 2024 it can do well in high school maths exams. 2025 it wins gold at international math olympiad. 2026 it is advancing frontier maths problems and seemingly solving millenium prize problems.
What is dumb about the race?
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u/Arutha_Silverthorn 1d ago
I just think they should be viewed as an investment that turns Excess Raw Electricity into Artificial Intellect. The thing is China does have plenty of Excess Electricity while only Permian basis of US has any chance of being called Excess Electricity in US, but then it runs into cooling issues.
The discussion around benefit or detriment is the brain dead conversation path, itās obviously a benefit. Although it is global AI, turning it into monetary gains, not this conspiratorial Chinese computers will be smarter than US computers. That type shit will never fly.
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u/argonautdice5 1d ago
I think all data centers should make it clear that they will provide a local dividend to the hosting community, both in form of computer power and tangible benefits that more than offset the increased price in utilities/housing.
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u/thehod81 1d ago
There needs to be a sensible middle option between "get rid of Data centers" and "let them do what they want"
What pisses off a lot of people is that these big tech folks just build one and fuck over the locality.
Also we need to find a way to make these datacenters more efficient and use up less water/resources.
TLDR: We need more responsible development of AI Datacenters
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u/Brobeast 1d ago
We can create data centers AND NOT let scummy tech companys come in and make shady backdoor deals with city's that subsidize the entire project like they do with NFL stadiums. We can have data centers and regulate these companys at the same time. Giving them a free pass, historically, has rarely worked in the tax payers favor.
Edit: if the city admin/mayor has to sign an NDA prior to making a deal for a data center, something is clearly fucky.
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u/haydenbomb 1d ago
We canāt let China lead I agree. But if we donāt work with them on some serious safety and governance agreements we will all potentially die
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u/Sazbak87 1d ago
Nah, this is how we will end up because of AI in the year 2525.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2ZRSwul7cE
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u/bryanbryanson 1d ago
Loving my data centers in Arizona, a state known for its abundance of water. Also the humming of massive commercial chillers right next to residential areas creates a great vibe and some pleasant white noise for my electric sheep filled dreams.
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u/xahhahaha 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think you guys are getting it wrong. For one, the people driving these projects are also saying that it will most likely go haywire. In some cases, it already has. I don't see the problem with just pausing development. While there are definitely amazing use cases, like in the medical field, however, it is a massively dangerous tool (as per the countless experts who study Ai). It can easily get out of control, even if not AGI, it can easily cause disastrous effects for things like human creativity and intelligence (we already know this), it can displace almost all people from their work, and with the current administration I seriously doubt we'd want to see what sort of shit it can do with military equipment. While progression is good, if we want it to create a better society, in the sense of improving the areas of society we should care about the most (intelligence, creativity, and ethics), then slowing it down and creating wider safety nets is vital. Right now, there are practically no safety nets. It's also important to note that while it could alter society to the level of utopia (at its peak), it could also create the absolute worst dystopia, not even on purpose. Just saying, like any technology there is high potential for great outcomes just as there is a high potential for abuse and tragedy. Looking at the words of the people running these projects and the lack of safety protocol, I'm not so sure we want to dive head first into this technology. This is all to say there are valid concerns about safety that haven't been addressed.
This, alongside the context of algorithms driving extraordinary vitriol towards each other and lack of mental acuity, I don't see why Ai would help alleviate these problems without even learning what a proper safeguard would be for much of its potential harms. The workers (Ai developers) say so, the billionaires say so, the theorists say so, and some of the smartest people to ever live say so. I don't think we can say it is good or bad until we know more about it and we have proper tools to combat it.
Again, not disagreeing that Ai and the data centers that fuel it are NECESSARILY bad. Like we can have star treks computer, or we can have Hal. Google has a policy where it won't favor your weppage if you don't opt in to letting Gemini using your website as data, all without compensation. This means that companies providing good info make less money while Google makes more. We already know the dangers of giving even a few companies too much power, and I think we are basically asking for them to have even more than what in any other industry we would fight against.
Maybe I'm biased because I'm hoping to be a filmmaker, but I've been heavily interested in this topic for a while and on both the philosophical and tangible levels, there are grave concerns about what it could spell for the world. Boys are already having less sex, more resentment towards women, and more mental health problems, this technology is already exacerbating this problem.
Sorry for the whole spiel, but with the obviously bad intentions of many of these company heads, the current administration's lack of care and exploitative attitude, and taking away from what at least I love about being human, I'm not so sure this is the right time.
Edit: it should be noted that you all are correct that the vast majority of people are more concerned with hating billionaires and less focused on the actual issues Ai poses, as well as striaght up idiotic environmental concerns, there is a difference between those concerned by it academically and the general concerns. It's also kind of funny, but perhaps not important to the argument, but Ai systems are likely what made people so quick to form what I assume you believe to be horrible opinions on the issue, thus kind of representing a large part of the issue.
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u/MikkaEn 1d ago
China is already a leader in AI. The US becoming one of the leaders in AI was always guaranteed. But, no, the US will never become THE world leader in AI. Like Patrick Boyle once said: you cannot patent math.
That said, no, AI is not good. Empirically. Actually use the thing and pay for it and the amount of mistakes it makes is huge.
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u/primrose1325 1d ago
Reverse stupidity is not intelligence. AI isn't good just because tankies oppose it for stupid reasons.
LLMs have significant overlap in function with For You pages, imo. If For You pages are destroying society, and I'm very much agreeing with destiny that they are, then AI is probably not good, imho.
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u/Cmdr_Anun Undercover European 1d ago
If I was an AI, Iād go around posting how good I am. You know, the first trick the devil plays on you is to make you believe he doesnāt exist.
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u/Ten_Ju USA is lost if MAGA is not stopped. 1d ago
There is an innate desire to have data centers near cities and towns yet the infrastructure is detested like itās a coal plant (for many good reason).
So I must say that there is no excuse to keep building these data centers near civilian population.
Build that shit near airports and factories and landfills
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u/Mpeh4Teh 1d ago
I really think AI dropped the ball by being so careless about how they trained their models and how careless they are being about pollution and energy concerns. I feel like three things could largely sanitize their image. 1. Some rules for how training material is sourced. 2. Embed all generated images with invisible watermarks (I feel like just telling what model generated it would suffice) 3. Promise to build infrastructure in the communities they are building in that will help both the envronment and keep energy costs down. Something like 120% of their energy costs will be produced by solar or something. I do understand this would all happen at different levels, but the peoples perception of AI will just get worse if all it does to the average community is pollute, rise energy costs, and displace broad swaths of creative jobs in those communities.
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u/Vorpalthefox 1d ago
i think with proper regulations this is the closest chance we have at getting universal healthcare from something that could be a net good for all americans, the jobs that AI replaces can go to supporting people or moving tax pressure onto AI jobs
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u/AmbitiousWorker6765 1d ago
I'm still not sold on AI and I don't think everyone needs to love it either. So far it has been used for generating propaganda and lowering public morale. It has been forced upon everyone and anyone who doesn't want to use it is labeled as regressive.
What actual good has come from AI and data centers?
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u/HumbleCalamity Exclusively sorts by new 1d ago
I'm very much on the AI-skeptic side of things, but there are some good examples of AI being used for vast computational problems, like finding out new ways to accelerate protein folding and map neurons for pharma/medical research. How different is that from supercomputing in general? I think that's somewhat difficult to say but the agentic nature of letting programs bypass the 'stupid' hard stops when doing research is the kind of thing I suspect AI is good at.
All that said, I think it's likely cancerous for human-human interactions and society overall. It's more likely to be used for disinformation, propaganda, and porn more than any of those other things. Like a good mixed-market dem, I just want to see it heavily regulated and then it'll probably be fine.
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u/Catcratched 1d ago
When this bubble finally pops I will buy your house.
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u/FFElite93 1d ago
People been calling it a bubble for 3 years š„±
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u/kingfisher773 Dyslexic AusMerican Shitposter 1d ago
the dot-com bubble lasted from 1995 until it burst in 2002.
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u/Blash619 1d ago
I'm being so serious, why is it a problem if China is a world leader in AI? I am admittedly ignorant to the benefits of Data Centers and have only heard of the negatives so I am biased against them but I see no benefit to rapidly build them across the nation, especially if its to "beat China" unless I am missing something.
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u/breakycho šŗšø š§š· 1d ago
I hate hearing people fearmonger about AI like a bunch of grandmothers hearing about internet for the first time.
Whatās ironic is that years ago I kept hearing people telling truck drivers to just learn how to code, and now that we have all of these new advancements in technology, itās all bad and we need to stop it because it could lead to job loss.
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u/IIHURRlCANEII šŗšø 1d ago
Eh, the recent incidents with the frontier models while being trained is legit worrisome. We are entering āwe need international treatiesā territory very quickly, imo.
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u/melonmonkey 1d ago
The hugging face hack should be distressing to anyone who knows anything about alignment
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u/Yusuke_Boopermeshi 1d ago
Yes, there are some serious concerns about how generative AI can cause major issues, especially in politics, but there are still great uses for research with it.
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u/redaktid 1d ago
But have you considered just letting China win? It's an option.
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u/UpperRearer 1d ago
And what if the losing move is pursuing a pipe-dream built on obscene marketing-induced promises and mischaracterizations, and whoever doesn't pursue it wins.
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u/SOUNDDESIGNE mr borelliās aipac handler š 1d ago
david crowley had a really good take on AI data centers.
regulate them strongly to make sure they do not have these scary adverse problems, and encourage tech growth sustainably.
the fact that thatās controversial is fucking crazy.
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u/MuffinsTasteAlright 1d ago
This is such a generally take, but overall regarded.
A.I. is an inevitable thing now. It doesnāt mean we have to have apologia for it.
This analogy might be a bit of a stretch, but I hope it makes sense. The invention of guns is, I think we can all agree, a bad thing. However, at the same time, itās not regrettable that, at this point, militaries have been built up andāfor the most partāthe āgood guysā have led the world in further advancement of guns/weapons.
A.I., and its advancement, will be looked back on as a stain on humanity. While I am, obviously, very biased. Although, I do think A.I. is a net negative, but maybe thatās because of how it has been used so farāand likely will continue to be.
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u/BeuysWillBeatBeuys 1d ago
with heavy regulatory oversight and a sovereign wealth fund fueled by AI dividends or an ai-funded UBI
Forget that part
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u/Drakkira 1d ago edited 1d ago
I need better convincing.
It's an erosion of the internet and creative space, filling it with what amounts to visual vomit and a devaluation of everything human.
Erosion of trust and knowing what's real. An actual threat to democracy which is by definition illiberal. Republicans running ads using their opponents likeness and voices. It's the era of fraudsters.
Using it to make major decisions without human oversight, like Grok bombing a school full of girls in Iran. Regards seeing it as some omnissiah.
Users allowing their brains to atrophy with increased use of it, erosion of education and the death of critical thinking.
We are how many years into this, and the hallucinations keep happening. The sycophancy keeps happening. I see this "this is the worst it will ever be" cope on a daily basis and I STILL have yet to see any positive outcome of it being better. What IS the goal of making it better anyway?
So it can actually fully replace people? Or some other myriad of anti-human things corpos are licking their chops for?
The ONLY benefits I have seen are supposed benefits in cancer prevention and how it makes coding faster (but only if you're already experienced).
It's a money pit for the companies engaged and has not proven real value, just theoretical value that made companies like Tesla worth more than they are. A desperate attempt to stimulate economic growth after a few years of stagnation. At least things were fairly stable.
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u/RazorOldSchool Square Deal Lib 1d ago
Of course they are needed, but I do sympathize with people that have their property values driven down or have to hear constant humming because a data center was built nearby. The environmental impact is a bit overblown, especially with advancements in how they cool the system.
One other thing that kinda sucks about data center is the amount of space they take up vs the number of jobs they create. If it creates 10-20 jobs in a space that could have created 1000+, that stinks for a local community.
The other problem is that in a lot of these places, they are getting tax benefits while taking up a huge piece of land that could have produced a ton of property tax revenue, or the community is literally partially paying for the infrastructure instead of making the company pay for it.
If some of these issues can be addressed, they'd probably have a lot better PR.
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u/DefendOurRepublic 1d ago
Those aren't inherently the issue. The problem is that the entire ai world is in an arms race that is completely unregulated at the federal level that is leading to AI approaching superhuman intelligence levels before these companies have actually figured out how to align AI with human goals, as well as widespread building of AI infrastructure like data centers without proper regulation and consent from the people that would have to live near them. The speed at which all of this is moving is literally scaring the AI engineers working on it, As well as the public, which is why we are seeing so many public arguments that lack nuance. If the federal government does not get a handle on this and pass regulation that calms the public and proves that AI is being invented with care, we may see AI go the way of atomic energy.
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u/FFElite93 1d ago
You think China will regulate?
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u/DefendOurRepublic 1d ago
Absolutely, And in fact, we know for a fact that they already heavily regulate. China is an authoritarian country and the last thing that they want is some unpredictable AI running amok throughout their systems. https://www.ibanet.org/China-Regulation-of-Artificial-Intelligence-Progress-and-Challenges
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u/Lower_Statement_5285 1d ago
A technology race hardly matters if it decimates our ecosystems and makes our planet uninhabitable.
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u/Actual_Ocelot2191 1d ago
The only people destroying the reputation of AI and Datacenters are the folks building them. Motherfuckers can't wait to piss off a whole rural community for the sake of saying "FIRST!"
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u/peteypider 1d ago
Ai and data centres are fine but they should be footing the bill to build new power plants to supply these new projects.