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Meta steals a tactic from Tesla and builds data centers in tents

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Re: Meta steals a tactic from Tesla and builds data centers in tents

#51

Post by Barrin92 »

john_strinlai wrote: post #18
krige wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of the two? Probably the polls. "Active users" is blatantly a weasel metric.

odd choice, mind explaining it a bit more? why should a company listen to a gallup poll of ~1,500 people over their own internal metrics? do you think all types of companies should heed the advice of gallup polls over their own metrics, experience, and research?

>why should a company listen to a gallup poll of ~1,500 people over their own internal metrics?

for the same reason Vladimir Putin should listen to Russian milbloggers rather than his own subordinates, the metrics are being cooked up by people who get promoted for good metrics

Re: Meta steals a tactic from Tesla and builds data centers in tents

#52

Post by hcurtiss »

FabCH wrote: post #36
Dlanv wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The public hates ai but also uses ai in mass quantities. Capitalism abides by your dollars not your voice. So people can decry ai all they want but if they keep using it, it won't go away. Even then it's probable that AI is a big enough productivity boost for certain industries that even if no consumers used AI, businesses would still prop AI up enough for it to live on.

Capitalism abides by dollars only so long as force is not in play. When the Molotov cocktails start flying, dollars lose their grip. Simone Weil had good theoretical and practical observations on force vs economy 100 years ago.

Nah, dollars buy war machines. And for the first time in human history, we are on the precipice of projecting substantial ground force without the need for humans.

Re: Meta steals a tactic from Tesla and builds data centers in tents

#53

Post by bethekidyouwant »

emsign wrote: post #45
bethekidyouwant wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you want to power them? You know the gas generators are the largest power generation source in the US right?

How about not powering them at all.

Horrifying

Re: Meta steals a tactic from Tesla and builds data centers in tents

#54

Post by john_strinlai »

Barrin92 wrote: post #51
john_strinlai wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

odd choice, mind explaining it a bit more? why should a company listen to a gallup poll of ~1,500 people over their own internal metrics? do you think all types of companies should heed the advice of gallup polls over their own metrics, experience, and research?

>why should a company listen to a gallup poll of ~1,500 people over their own internal metrics? for the same reason Vladimir Putin should listen to Russian milbloggers rather than his own subordinates, the metrics are being cooked up by people who get promoted for good metrics

i pose my hypothetical widget question from the sibling comment to you as well.

Re: Meta steals a tactic from Tesla and builds data centers in tents

#56

Post by unknownfuture »

john_strinlai wrote: post #12
josefritzishere wrote: post #2

This is madness. The polling is in and the public hates, positively hates AI. So of course the response is to do AI even more. https://newrepublic.com/article/209163/ai-industry-discoveri...

there are polls where a sample of people say they hate ai. on the other hand, there are a billion+ weekly active users. from a business perspective, which of those two statistics would you give more weight?

This is basically an argument about revealed preference, and these things are always more complicated than that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revealed_preference

Re: Meta steals a tactic from Tesla and builds data centers in tents

#57

Post by bluGill »

HWR_14 wrote: post #41
john_strinlai wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there are polls where a sample of people say they hate ai. on the other hand, there are a billion+ weekly active users. from a business perspective, which of those two statistics would you give more weight?

People hate AI datacenters in their backyard. From a business perspective, I hope "obey the local zoning laws" is a fairly high priority.

I don't hate the data centers near me. However I do hate the tax incentives they were given. My local school district could really use those millions of dollars per year that someone decided we don't get.

Re: Meta steals a tactic from Tesla and builds data centers in tents

#58

Post by luk212 »

So AI infrastructure buildout is starting to feel a lot like emergency industrial mobilization...

Also, building rapid temp shells plus nearby gas turbines paints a very different picture than the one conveyed by the "clean-energy" PR around hyperscale data centers.

Re: Meta steals a tactic from Tesla and builds data centers in tents

#59

Post by Descon »

slicktux wrote: post #20

When I read the headline I imagined a huge tent with steel beam structure and professional grade covers with HVAC and concrete footprint. Seems everyone else imagined a camping tent. Different backgrounds I guess.

Those look like sprung structures's tents. They can get real fancy: https://www.sprung.com/

Re: Meta steals a tactic from Tesla and builds data centers in tents

#60

Post by Karrot_Kream »

jzymbaluk wrote: post #25

The fact that these behemoths are being powered by gas generators is horrifying

The reason is because permitting and building a natgas generator is the easiest among the energy production methods in the US. Datacenters need to be close-ish to Internet Exchanges to be cost competitive when lighting up network capacity. Solar cells are expensive (Chinese tariffs or domestic production) and permitting is tough. Nuclear is still a permitting and cost nightmare. Wind requires a lot of land. Hydroelectric is considered an environmental dead end after the ecological effects of the Hoover Dam. Geothermal is still unproven. Transmission lines moving power between generation and consumption is a permitting nightmare.

In that world, natural gas just makes the most sense. The US hasn't build generation capacity in any meaningful way in decades. We've deindustrialized over time so it's been relatively okay, until a new form of industry (datacenters) starts putting pressure on the whole thing.

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