"From Chile and Mexico to Georgia in the US and Scotland, serious concerns have been raised around data centres guzzling excess water and consuming vast amounts of energy at the cost of local communities. In an energy starved, water-scarce India, these challenges are even more accentuated. According to the World Bank, India has 18% of the world's population, but only 4% of its water resources, making it among the most water-stressed countries in the world."
Google, Meta, Amazon: India’s data centre boom confronts a water challenge
Energy hungry, water-guzzling data centres could affect India's decarbonisation plans, say experts.
"The latest version of Elon Musk’s Grok AI model cost nearly $500 million to train and consumed enough energy, water, and resources to match the needs of an entire small city." "The carbon footprint of training Grok 4 reached 154,000 tons of CO₂, comparable to what a commercial Boeing airplane emits over three years of flights. Cooling the data centers and running power systems took 754 million liters of water—enough to fill around 300 Olympic-sized swimming pools."
Dagens.com
Elon Musk’s Grok AI used city-scale energy and water to train
The latest version of Elon Musk’s Grok AI model cost nearly $500 million to train and consumed enough energy, water, and resources to match the n...
Data centers in Ireland article I'm doing an article on the impact of data centers in Ireland. Anyone got some interesting insights or information?
"‘Degrowth’ is as clear as it gets. Definitely no less clear than ‘equality’; or ‘economic growth’ for that matter (is it growth of welfare or activity? monetised or all activity? if only monetised, why would we care?). Beyond a critique of the absurdity of perpetual growth, degrowth signifies a decrease of global carbon and material footprint, starting from the wealthy."
You’re wrong Kate. Degrowth is a compelling word | From Poverty to Power
What are the real world implications of "aggressively" rolling out solar, wind and EVs? All over the world, the mining oligarchs are hungry and hunting. In Ireland, right now young geologists are knocking on farmers doors, saying they're doing PHDs and could they survey the land for lithium. The farmers know the game, ask for written confirmation, find out its all a ruse by multinational lithium company. In Global South, they're coming with guns and bombs to make Green Sacrifice Zones.
AI cannot be a moral agent with an understanding of difference between right and wrong and is held accountable for its actions, he said. “AI can produce the same decisions and recommendations that humans would produce,” he said, “but the causal history of those decisions differs in important ways.” Unlike humans, AI lacks free will and cannot be held morally responsible. If an AI system causes harm, the blame lies with its developers or users, not the technology itself.
Can artificial intelligence have morality? Philosophy weighs in
A philosopher who studies technology is keeping a scorecard on AI and cautions that machines are not capable of truly moral choices.
"More than 15 new data centres are being built on Swiss soil, partly to power AI applications. With over 120 server farms, Switzerland now has one of the highest densities of data centres per capita in Europe. Experts estimate that these currently account for around 7%External link of total Swiss electricity consumption. By 2030, consumption could rise to as much as 15%."
SWI swissinfo.ch
Swiss concerned by electricity consumption of data centres and AI
A survey shows that Swiss citizens are increasingly concerned by the expected growth in electricity consumption linked to data centres and artifici...
"If you're wondering what happened to your computer from 20 years ago, it just might be at a massive e-waste dumpsite in Ghana, one of the major destinations for discarded electronics from Europe and North America. In the r/UrbanHell subreddit, one user shared photos that captured a haunting scene at an e-waste graveyard."
Yahoo News
Disturbing photos reveal astonishing truth about what happens to thrown-out electronics: 'Shame'
"We've become parasites within our own home."
The data centers are coming. Resist! "I never thought that a data centre would be built across the street from my house," she said. "I would not have bought this house if I had known what was going in across the street." "There are no birds around here anymore," he said, noting the humming or buzzing noise the centre emits scares away a lot of wildlife from his area.
BBC News
A humming annoyance or jobs boom? Life next to 199 data centres in Virginia
Data centres were billed as a boon to Virginia’s economy. Now, residents are concerned about their impact on real estate and electricity costs.
AI is a racist, bigoted, imperialist male white supremacy tech bro shithead "When prompted to visualise Aotearoa New Zealand’s past, Sora privileges the European settler viewpoint: pre-colonial landscapes are rendered as empty wilderness, Captain Cook appears as a calm civiliser, and Māori are cast as timeless, peripheral figures."
The Conversation
Historical images made with AI recycle colonial stereotypes and bias – new research
Generative AI is known to mirror sexist and racist stereotypes, but it also carries a colonial bias that is reinforcing outdated ideas about the past.