Revealed: UK's multibillion AI drive is built on 'phantom investments'
1–10 of 57 posts
Re: Revealed: UK's multibillion AI drive is built on 'phantom investments'
#2Sounds a lot like Zuckerberg getting caught on a hot mike at the trump dinner about how many billion meta is investing
All made up bullshit numbers
Re: Revealed: UK's multibillion AI drive is built on 'phantom investments'
#3Just multibillion?
Re: Revealed: UK's multibillion AI drive is built on 'phantom investments'
#4The US is no different. All the deals seem to make sense until you take a step back and realize it's just a bunch of circular investments. This bubble bursting is going to be orders of magnitude funnier than the NFT/web3 implosion, I can't wait.
Re: Revealed: UK's multibillion AI drive is built on 'phantom investments'
#5The US is no different. All the deals seem to make sense until you take a step back and realize it's just a bunch of circular investments. This bubble bursting is going to be orders of magnitude funnier than the NFT/web3 implosion, I can't wait. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_bubble
I don't disagree, but I can't join you wishing for it to happen. It's going to be bad for all of us.
Re: Revealed: UK's multibillion AI drive is built on 'phantom investments'
#6The US is no different. All the deals seem to make sense until you take a step back and realize it's just a bunch of circular investments. This bubble bursting is going to be orders of magnitude funnier than the NFT/web3 implosion, I can't wait. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_bubble
> is going to be orders of magnitude funnier than the NFT/web3 implosion, I can't wait.
When was that? Seems I missed it, the market cap of cryptocurrencies in general seems to still be around ~2.5T USD, way above what I thought an "implosion" would mean.
Re: Revealed: UK's multibillion AI drive is built on 'phantom investments'
#7To build a Gigawatt AI data center in 2025 is reported to cost $35bn [1]. If you're not going to build it to top specs, why even bother. Given that this is the UK, once all the bureaucracy is done, it'll be at least 50% more expensive.
A large business is estimated to use 50MWh at £14,706 a year [2]. It'll cost in excess of £300k per year just to run electricity, not that the grid has that in spare capacity [3]. It's completely in contrast to their green energy campaign.
Then, they don't even have any kind of contract actually in place:
> Asked about the terms of the contract that Nscale had signed to build the supercomputer by the end of this year, the government did not reply directly. Instead, it said that Nscale’s entire $2.5bn investment was “not a formal contract, rather an intention to commit capital”, and “may well include equipment and capital funding”.
There's not enough serious capital invested to get this off of the ground (or even to break ground seemingly). And then there are basic questions, like:
1. Why would build a data center that is supposed to create tonnes of jobs, in a location where it costs a lot to employ people?
2. Why would you outsource your data center if you live in the US or EU, when there are better options available locally? These data centers sure as hell won't be used by British companies because the government are crushing them with tax.
3. The energy cost is far too high compared to locations with nuclear or hydro electricity generation.
This whole thing stinks. I think it's a complete and utter lie.
[1] https://uk.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/how-much-doe...
[2] https://www.moneysupermarket.com/gas-and-electricity/busines...
[3] https://watt-logic.com/2025/01/09/blackouts-near-miss-in-tig...
Re: Revealed: UK's multibillion AI drive is built on 'phantom investments'
#8The UK has been chronically bad at providing jobs and training for its young people. I saw that 20 years ago when I was there. That is a key reason, perhaps the primary reason, for its long term productivity malaise. And the response is to lean into a technology that will make this situation profoundly worse? It's another lazy quick fix that is neither quick nor a real fix. The UK needs to invest in its people, not funnel yet more money to big tech.
Re: Revealed: UK's multibillion AI drive is built on 'phantom investments'
#9The US is no different. All the deals seem to make sense until you take a step back and realize it's just a bunch of circular investments. This bubble bursting is going to be orders of magnitude funnier than the NFT/web3 implosion, I can't wait. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_bubble
Is the US really no different? I can name at least a few US companies making a serious attempt at AI stuff, and while I haven't invested in any of them I can understand how billions of dollars are being thrown around here.
But in the UK? What UK AI orgs are there? Deep Mind is/was but they're owned by Google since a long time ago. Is there even a single large UK company taking money for AI that isn't just flagrantly scamming by any measure?
Re: Revealed: UK's multibillion AI drive is built on 'phantom investments'
#10It's such as shame to see the country that produced the Sinclair Spectrum and so many classic gaming legends become so irrelevant in computing and gaming..