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AI is poised to drive 160% increase in data center power demand

16 points by heshiebee 2y ago

throwitaway222 2y ago
Maybe having solar panel tarrifs at 400% isn't a good idea after all
- wortelefant 2y ago
  Variable renewable energies like solar and wind are not well suited for continuous power demand - solar is only available during daytime when it is sunny, wind has a capacity factor of about 20%. Hydropower or nuclear are the most reliable options, the latter also cleaner than VREs with fossil backup
  - throwitaway222 2y ago
    batteries
fragmede 2y ago
Demand for AI is driving the derivative of demand to go up, breaking forecasts. I wonder how much money will spill over from AI investment into the power plants needed to support them. they're not going to stop a data center from coming online because there's no power for it, they're just going to build power for it.
amjnsx 2y ago
Will we see as much outrage about this as Bitcoin has received about its supposed energy use?
- JohnFen 2y ago
  I suspect so. I've been seeing increasing amounts of outrage about it over the last several weeks, anyway. This is the wrong moment in history to dramatically ramp up our power usage. We need to be doing the opposite of that, and we've already had a few big ramp-ups over the last several years.
  - throw20240511 2y ago
    Disagree, now is the best time to be increasing energy production and expenditure — it is the hallmark of development of a civilization. Using less energy means the stagnation of our civilization. How are we going to advance our technology without spending more energy? The scale of energy usage today are fractions of what it will be in 20, 50, 100 years… We must build big, build now.
    - JohnFen 2y ago
      The problem is that increasing energy usage has environmental repercussions. Until we figure out how to deal with that, increasing energy usage strikes me as being extremely self-destructive. > How are we going to advance our technology without spending more energy? Ignoring the question of whether or not advancing our technology should be our top priority, how are we going to do that if we keep pushing the world into a state that is hostile to human life?
- rightbyte 2y ago
  Hopefully. Internet as it is is bad enough power wise for very little extra utility compared to some less bloated setup.
  - ewzimm 2y ago
    How many office buildings could an AI datacenter replace? I think the offices would use many times more power and water.
    - rightbyte 2y ago
      Dunno but I believe the power of using LLMs to turn the light off and on might outweight much of the gains. No clue about proportions.
- bishbosh 2y ago
  I'm sure there will be some, but even if one takes most of the AI claims as exaggerated, current machine learning is orders of magnitude more useful than bitcoin ever was.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
xnx 2y ago
I found this very interesting: How to build an AI data center: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40637448 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40637448
ldehaan 2y ago
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16 points by heshiebee 2y ago

throwitaway222 2y ago

Maybe having solar panel tarrifs at 400% isn't a good idea after all

wortelefant 2y ago
Variable renewable energies like solar and wind are not well suited for continuous power demand - solar is only available during daytime when it is sunny, wind has a capacity factor of about 20%. Hydropower or nuclear are the most reliable options, the latter also cleaner than VREs with fossil backup
- throwitaway222 2y ago
  batteries

fragmede 2y ago

Demand for AI is driving the derivative of demand to go up, breaking forecasts. I wonder how much money will spill over from AI investment into the power plants needed to support them. they're not going to stop a data center from coming online because there's no power for it, they're just going to build power for it.

amjnsx 2y ago

Will we see as much outrage about this as Bitcoin has received about its supposed energy use?

JohnFen 2y ago
I suspect so. I've been seeing increasing amounts of outrage about it over the last several weeks, anyway. This is the wrong moment in history to dramatically ramp up our power usage. We need to be doing the opposite of that, and we've already had a few big ramp-ups over the last several years.
- throw20240511 2y ago
  Disagree, now is the best time to be increasing energy production and expenditure — it is the hallmark of development of a civilization. Using less energy means the stagnation of our civilization. How are we going to advance our technology without spending more energy? The scale of energy usage today are fractions of what it will be in 20, 50, 100 years… We must build big, build now.
  - JohnFen 2y ago
    The problem is that increasing energy usage has environmental repercussions. Until we figure out how to deal with that, increasing energy usage strikes me as being extremely self-destructive. > How are we going to advance our technology without spending more energy? Ignoring the question of whether or not advancing our technology should be our top priority, how are we going to do that if we keep pushing the world into a state that is hostile to human life?
rightbyte 2y ago
Hopefully. Internet as it is is bad enough power wise for very little extra utility compared to some less bloated setup.
- ewzimm 2y ago
  How many office buildings could an AI datacenter replace? I think the offices would use many times more power and water.
  - rightbyte 2y ago
    Dunno but I believe the power of using LLMs to turn the light off and on might outweight much of the gains. No clue about proportions.
bishbosh 2y ago
I'm sure there will be some, but even if one takes most of the AI claims as exaggerated, current machine learning is orders of magnitude more useful than bitcoin ever was.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

xnx 2y ago

I found this very interesting: How to build an AI data center: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40637448 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40637448

ldehaan 2y ago

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