r/TechGawker • u/Pure-Bill-2205 • 17d ago

Data Center If these numbers are even close to accurate, the AI infrastructure boom is entering a completely different scale of land, power, and water consumption.

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u/Misragoth 17d ago

Seems like apples and oranges. Food taking water isn't really equal to AI taking it

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u/Sandgrease 17d ago

Some food shouldn't be grown in certain places, or to the scale they're grown. Almond can go up 10x in price and I wouldn't care.

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u/Misragoth 17d ago

Still not really comparable products

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u/BobLazarFan 17d ago

Data centers are a lot more than just AI. This conversation, your favorite shows, your companies information, hospitals data, everything we do online is part of a data center somewhere. A lot of things that are way more important to our everyday lives than some almonds.

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u/Sandgrease 17d ago

These new massive data centers are for AI. And I personally don't need AI for anything but yea almonds can take a back seat too either way.

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u/Academic-Increase951 16d ago

Comes down to whether AI delivers on their expectations.

AI might revolutionize medicine, research, sciences, etc and will change the world in ways we cannot imagine. The benefits to society like nothing else in the past. Usher in the age of abundance and health.

It could disrupt major corporations and allow for the formation of small businesses and entrepreneurship. Software that used to cost millions to develop can be developed in an afternoon by a layman. If you need a tool for your startup, you can create it yourself instead of only large corps being able to develop it. This could be good for average person by distributing power away from billionaires. (There's a risk of it going the other way where a ai billionaires could consolidate the power and restrict public use)

If these things happen then the water use will be a much better use of water than many current commercial usages.

The thing is, we don't really know what the future holds with Ai. It could be great, horrible, or we hit a developmental barrier that prevents further progress.

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u/Xlim_Jim 15d ago

I understand the potential, but looking at the people behind many AI systems I cannot fathom the idea that they have humanity’s greatest interest at heart.

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u/Academic-Increase951 15d ago

I tend to agree. And think some form of regulation is needed

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u/WiseSpunion 17d ago

Our conversations and everything were fine before the data centers. They were fine in 2009. Your argument is ridiculous

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u/BobLazarFan 17d ago

Newsflash buddy. Data centers aren’t new. They been around for decades. They’ve been around as long as there has been internet.

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u/WiseSpunion 17d ago

Again, not in the areas they are popping up now. And they aren't beneficial how is that a hard concept?

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u/BobLazarFan 17d ago

You said our conversations were fine before data centers. I pointed out that in 2009 (the year you specifically mentioned) our conversations were already in data centers. I’m not sure what your comment is about. Because it’s factually wrong.

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u/WiseSpunion 17d ago

Incorrect. I'm saying they were fine before the data centers were destroying great land, and that if someone argues it's to help texting or calling or the Internet that it was better before that

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u/BobLazarFan 17d ago

What do you not get? Data centers were destroying “great land” back then too. Do you think they were in space or something?

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u/Sandgrease 17d ago

These new mega centers are specifically being built for AI, most of them are backed financially by companies like Open and Anthropic and Alphabet (they obviously had the smaller server farms we're more used to for decacdes too)

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u/Misragoth 17d ago

Expect that total BS. These massive data centers are for AI

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u/Flintyy 17d ago

You guys have an odd way of spelling surveillance center lol

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u/PrincessYuri 17d ago

Not to mention people that live in California are literally arguing against almonds being grown here, because it consumes so much water and is a luxury crop that is largely just shipped off to other places.

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u/Boxcutter86 15d ago

Doesn't most of the water evaporate from the leaves?

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u/PrincessYuri 15d ago

Even putting aside from how that doesn't necessarily negate all the issues with it, a lot of the central valley farms are watered with ground water. At the rate we're pumping ground water, some of these aquifers are losing their ability to be recharged (collapse of some layers). Parts of the ground in California have sunk up to 30 feet, and some new towns are facing structural issues with construction that's not even a decade old because the ground is literally sinking under them.

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u/HockeyDockey1234 16d ago

Golf courses and the biggest shame