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Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

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Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#111

Post by clutchdude »

mNovak wrote: post #87
surfmike wrote: post #7

How much does OpenAI actually control the way the data centers are built and deployed? I don’t know much about the impact of their data centers compared to others, but there weren’t many (if any) concrete commitments in this letter. The promises all seem like areas that even an evil corporation could pay lip service to.

Major tenants like OAI have near total control. These GW-class datacenters are built to spec for the tenant. Construction doesn't start until all the details are signed off.

It is setting up the classic liability shift.

If you are just paying the bills and leasing the space, is it really your fault a datacenter some other entity built is sucking the water table of Levelland dry?

If I just use and don't own the data center, then how can I be held accountable for it's impact others?

Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#112

Post by snypher »

qarl2 wrote: post #70
skywhopper wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think the folks who are successfully organizing against datacenters can’t use the same techniques and support networks to do the same thing against other nuisance uses?

Not really - China doesn't care about other nuisance issues. Look at how the TikTok kids (who went nuts for the Palestinians) don't give a crud about the Cubans.

Well, the Cubans ain't being bombed by their neighbors.

Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#113

Post by mikem170 »

oceanplexian wrote: post #63
toomuchtodo wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not an excuse for residents to have lower quality of life for capital speculators "because it was industrial zoning". Try to make your case in a public hearing with a room full of residents, see how it goes. Long time politicians are getting fired over it, so natural consequences will help with this. Data Center Disputes Fuel 33 Recall Efforts, Ballotpedia Finds - https://ballotpedia.org/Press_release_Data_Ce…

I live in Utah and we have refineries a few blocks away from residential neighborhoods and a literal strip mine visible from half of the Salt Lake valley. The datacenter controversy has nothing to do with caring about the environment and is a complete scam that preys on low-information voters. It is a product of outside Chinese money being funneled into US politics to hobble the US in Artificial Intelligence.

> It is a product of outside Chinese money being funneled into US politics to hobble the US in Artificial Intelligence

Or this could be Russian propaganda, to manipulate US opinion against China in this case. What are your sources?

Without evidence to the contrary, the prevailing narrative is more likely correct- people have been told by the tech titans that AI will change everything and they'll loose their jobs, so they don't like it.

In fact, whoever is saying the Chinese are tricking Americans may be trying to get more people to support US big-tech's AI build-out (or stock market bubble) by appealing to nationlism - that the Chinese will get us. A double cross.

Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#114

Post by atleastoptimal »

The main issue with wanting to block data centers in any specific location, is the hyperscalers will just move to building them wherever politics are most favorable. If protesters in your blue state block construction, they'll just build more in red states, giving the red states more leverage in how AI progress continues. If they are blocked across the board in the US, more will be build abroad, in countries that would never give credence to anti-datacenter movements that would stall economic growth.

The best option is to get everyone on the same page about AI benefits and hazards, and not be unrealistic about the way AI could shape up as a transformative element of human society.

Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#115

Post by nickff »

tclancy wrote: post #89
watwut wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I noticed the same thing about effective altruism. Its fans are really good at convincing themselves the most self-serving action amd goals are noble pursuits.

I’ve yet to hear of effective altruism from anyone less wealthy me. Seems to be weirdly lumped among the rich.

To be fair to its adherents (of which I am not one), the so-called philosophy espouses maximizing income, so that one can later allocate that wealth efficiently. Working in a low-earning field which directly provides aid to those in need would seem to violate a core precept of 'Effective Altruism'.

Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#116

Post by rayiner »

coldbrewed wrote: post #4

This is a collection of "OpenAI will boldly act in the abstract to provide air coverage for Texas leadership." With data centers under construction one would think they would have examples of successes or projects in progress available for reference. They'd claim credit if they had it so the silence is telling. Big tech has consistently valued profit and growth above good stewardship; the onus is entirely on OpenAI t…

Building stuff is good stewardship. We complain about NIMBYs. But with a few relatively modest regulations data centers can be quite friendly. They don’t generate traffic, congestion, etc. They don’t strain school or police infrastructure. Basically need some noise regulations. But the NIMBYs will kill it.

Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#117

Post by MetaWhirledPeas »

dyauspitr wrote: post #98
mminer237 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Texas leads the nation in raw renewable energy production. Solar, wind, and nuclear are hardly maligned there.

I’m pretty sure the GP knows that Texas does a lot of renewable energy. It’s just that you can’t talk about it or run on that platform as soon as you run on it people think you’re some woke liberal America destroyer.

Pretty much. When the Texas grid was failing during ice storms they were trying to blame wind farms IIRC.

I suspect the success of renewables in Texas has more to do with the bottom line than anything else. They certainly get a lot of badmouthing from people in rural areas. And honestly this is the best possible outcome. The impact of good intentions wavers along with cultural evolution, but it's hard to stop something that just makes financial sense.

Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#118

Post by asdff »

pessimizer wrote: post #95
asdff wrote: post #91

It is amazing seeing how openly corrupt red states are in recent years. At least blue states still attempt to maintain a fig leaf. Has it always been this way with the red states or have things legitimately gotten worse?

This is a strange reaction to a (admittedly horrible) red state governor halting construction of data centers due to public objections.

Just the idea of companies fleeing to places like texas to do things they could not get away with elsewhere seems pretty routine at this point

Re: Letter to Governor Abbott on responsible AI infrastructure in Texas

#120

Post by alpha_squared »

rayiner wrote: post #116
coldbrewed wrote: post #4

This is a collection of "OpenAI will boldly act in the abstract to provide air coverage for Texas leadership." With data centers under construction one would think they would have examples of successes or projects in progress available for reference. They'd claim credit if they had it so the silence is telling. Big tech has consistently valued profit and growth above good stewardship; the onus is entirely on OpenAI t…

Building stuff is good stewardship. We complain about NIMBYs. But with a few relatively modest regulations data centers can be quite friendly. They don’t generate traffic, congestion, etc. They don’t strain school or police infrastructure. Basically need some noise regulations. But the NIMBYs will kill it.

NIMBY is largely used for housing development discussions and to contort it in support of developing data centers is incredibly intellectually dishonest.

If we're going to rebrand things to blur lines, I propose rebranding data centers to pedophile content hubs.

The rest of your argument is full of similar cherry-picking for dishonest discourse.

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