hey just an FYI: we're not yet at the part where AI companies and the state are so closely intertwined that disclosing energy usage would constitute a threat to national security or some other such bullshit, making transparency into the environmental impact of data centers all but impossible
in mid/late 2023 i told someone that i'm not as invested in accounting of energy usage for training models because tech companies will employ accounting bullshit to obscure their energy and resource usage; that we should focus on the nearby communities that can't access water/energy reliably anymore
And you were so right. :(
the myriad ways that people's lives are disrupted and upended will be a more salient and less easily obscured window into how the current model of AI development is distending energy and water usage, albeit a perspective that doesn't lend itself to working with easy or clean data
still kinda wish i got that job, even if it would've had a wild commute.
🥰 fredericksburg.com/news/local/c...
distressing stuff, Construction Simulator 4 available on steam