"When we repeatedly retrieve information, our brains form durable memory schemata and neural manifolds. These structures are indispensable for intuitive reasoning, error-checking and smooth skill execution. But if we default to “just Google it,” those processes so fundamental for innovation and critical thinking may never fully develop, particularly in the smartphone generation."
Policy Options
How AI is eroding human memory and critical thinking
AI reliance erodes memory and critical thinking. Cognitive science shows how to strengthen learning with practice and recall.
The electricity use of China’s data centres is expected to increase by 170% between 2024 and 2030 By 2030, Chinese data centres will demand around 105 gigawatts of electricity, use 26.3 billion litres of water, and emit 310 million metric tonnes of CO2. This amount of electricity is more than half of China’s residential electricity demand in 2024.
Dialogue Earth
Is China’s energy system ready for the AI boom?
Fei Fei considers how to make AI systems both affordable and sustainable at the same time
"Two Arizona rattlesnakes died while underground, cooked to death in their burrows. These are creatures evolutionarily suited to survive extreme heat."
VICE
Arizona’s Heat Is So Extreme Even Rattlesnakes and Cacti Are Struggling
Two Arizona rattlesnakes died while underground, cooked to death in their burrows. These are creatures evolutionarily suited to survive.
 Amid the blazing heat and vast desert landscapes, Arizona and Nevada are quickly emerging as two of the most dynamic water-guzzling data center hubs in North America. https://www.datacenters.com/news/desert-data-inside-arizona-and-nevada-s-data-center-surge Make it make sense
"The rapid proliferation of IoT devices—expected to surpass 40 billion connected units by 2030—has created unprecedented challenges. These devices form the backbone of AI-powered systems. But powering them all is becoming an environmental and operational crisis. From environmental impact to inefficiencies in maintenance, the scale of the issue is staggering. Every passing day, millions of disposables and short-lived batteries are discarded globally."
Automation.com
IoT’s Growing Waste Crisis: Wireless Power Offers Urgent Escape Route
Young people can't get a new home because the data center took the water. "The rapid expansion of data centres in Melbourne is sharpening the focus on a resource often overshadowed by the power debate: water. As global demand for digital infrastructure accelerates, particularly with the rise of AI, the question of whether Melbourne’s water systems can sustain parallel growth in housing and data centres is becoming unavoidable."
Rethinking water and data centre growth in Melbourne – w.media
AI is driving up all our electricity bills Rising natural gas prices expected to drive up electricity costs: IEEFA Price volatility and sticker shock could trigger public backlash against utilities, an Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis expert says. https://www.utilitydive.com/news/-electric-prices-natural-gas-lng-ieefa/759085/
AI is fixing the typos but creating timebombs "The firm found that AI-assisted developers produced three to four times more code than their unassisted peers, but also generated ten times more security issues."
AI code assistants improve production of security problems
: Fixes typos, creates timebombs
"A significant share of the world’s “AI janitors” are low-wage workers tasked with labelling data, moderating disturbing content, and sanitizing AI outputs for global platforms often for less than $2 an hour and under gruelling conditions. The “magic” of AI, it turns out, is propped up by invisible labour in developing countries, whose health and well-being suffer as they review hateful, violent, or sensitive material to train or fix algorithms."
The Economic Times
Behind Every “Smart” AI Tool Lies a Human Cleaning Up Its Chaos
As artificial intelligence platforms flood the internet with “sloppy” output, a growing number of human workers are being called upon t...