Are you for or against Data Centers?

[xspeedy]

DCs are just another commercial thing. No different than an auto plant, refinery, semiconductor fab. Do we want to export all of our industry to China as we have been doing? Give them all our mining operations, oil drilling, oil refining, chemical production, auto manufacturing, chip making, aircraft manufacturing, defense…

We are in a new industrial boom. Imagine if we kicked progress out the door in the past. Where would we be as a nation?

 

[Silverado12]

You posted your message on a data center. Don’t see much good coming from them?

I'm open to insight. It seems like this message board has worked just fine since 2002 w/o Ai and data centers that suck up enormous resources. Like I said, I've heard a lot of bad about Ai but would like to know more.

 

[BHopkins]

What gave you the idea that all of the new data centers being built are for the end users? Was there a shortage before where people could not use their devices or connect to the internet?

I do not believe at all that all data centers are needed for businesses such as those mentioned by @rijndael. The AI data center being proposed here in my county is an example.

Sure, there are those here that seem to be ok with some types of data centers, but not others. But there seems to be a general dislike for data centers, regardless of the size or purpose. Many seem to have a Not in My Backyard attitude.

 

[SC Maintenance]

DCs are just another commercial thing. No different than an auto plant, refinery, semiconductor fab. Do we want to export all of our industry to China as we have been doing? Give them all our mining operations, oil drilling, oil refining, chemical production, auto manufacturing, chip making, aircraft manufacturing, defense…

We are in a new industrial boom. Imagine if we kicked progress out the door in the past. Where would we be as a nation?

I have been personally on site for the builds of many new or expanding manufacturing plants. As I posted above it’s all done above board. Everything is out in the open including how much money and resources the government will spend and what the owners promise - like how many jobs. When Dell left NC early they had to pay back a lot of grant money.

Big tech AI comes in the dead of night under assumed names like a thief. Most don’t know until they get a notice all there utility costs are going up. They don’t employee many at all after the build, and the build is mostly done by traveling crews.

 

[SC Maintenance]

I do not believe at all that all data centers are needed for businesses such as those mentioned by @rijndael. The AI data center being proposed here in my county is an example.

Sure, there are those here that seem to be ok with some types of data centers, but not others. But there seems to be a general dislike for data centers, regardless of the size or purpose. Many seem to have a Not in My Backyard attitude.

I was fine with them until I got a letter about my water surcharge going up 30% and the water % 20. Power keeps going up Rapidly.

Century aluminum closed and left a few years ago because they could not procure a reasonable electricity guarantee from the utility. Now suddenly we have power for AI data centers.

 

[NibbanaBanana]

With the building explosion of data centers are you for or against them?

I am against them. They are noisy, use lots of water and too much power.

I am also afraid of the A.I that comes with it.

Your thoughts?

I'm still trying to figure out what AI is good for. Admittedly a tech dinosaur here. Seems like, despite all the hype, it just perpetuates all the misinformation on the internet. I've heard all the claims by Sam Altman and other venture capitalists that are making big bank on this. But what can it actually do?

Can it paint my house? Can it change oil in my car? Can it weed the garden? Can it cook dinner? Can it mow the lawn? Please explain.

 

[4wd]

I was fine with them until I got a letter about my water surcharge going up 30% and the water % 20. Power keeps going up Rapidly.

Century aluminum closed and left a few years ago because they could not procure a reasonable electricity guarantee from the utility. Now suddenly we have power for AI data centers.

Amazon has bought land in our county for a data center. Being this is a big farming region - water is the biggest worry for the locals. One river wound up with a reservoir already to balance farming with upstream needs. AWS will be close to the smaller river.

 

[4wd]

I'm still trying to figure out what AI is good for. Admittedly a tech dinosaur here. Seems like, despite all the hype, it just perpetuates all the misinformation on the internet. I've heard all the claims by Sam Altman and other venture capitalists that are making big bank on this. But what can it actually do?

Can it paint my house? Can it change oil in my car? Can it weed the garden? Can it cook dinner? Can it mow the lawn? Please explain.

Musk can sell you a robot !

 

[skyactiv]

Posted this 9 years ago and it's coming true, especially regarding office jobs.

Post in thread 'Do you want a job here?'

Jan 12, 2017

My wife is a senior business analyst working for a firm hired by companies to "cut the fat". She knows a lot. The future looks scary according to her. Its not just manufacturing and self driving semis. Office jobs according to her could be a fraction of what they are today in the future. Will self driving semis pay into social security, state and federal income tax? How many semi drivers are there?

• skyactiv

 

[Rmay635703]

Practically every website you visit is hosted in a data center.
Do you use an app to order fast food? - No
Buy airline tickets online? - [SIZE=4][COLOR=rgb(184, 49, 47)][B][I]No[/I][/B][/COLOR][/SIZE]
Order from Amazon? - No
Share medical information from one doctor to another doctor? - No
Use Waze, Google Maps, or Apple maps ... and get real time traffic updates? - No

It's all hosted in a data centers.

 

[danstraylee]

Posted this 9 years ago and it's coming true, especially regarding office jobs.

Post in thread 'Do you want a job here?'

Jan 12, 2017

My wife is a senior business analyst working for a firm hired by companies to "cut the fat". She knows a lot. The future looks scary according to her. Its not just manufacturing and self driving semis. Office jobs according to her could be a fraction of what they are today in the future. Will self driving semis pay into social security, state and federal income tax? How many semi drivers are there?

• skyactiv

We saw the writing on the wall in the late 90's when Freightliner was experimenting with them. I think it's great!! The more human replacement we can have in work sectors for better profitability the better!!

No matter what anyone thinks the statistics cannot be disputed in regards to safety and less chance of accidents in the trucking industry with the use of self driving rigs. It is an absolute game changer.

 

[KrisZ]

DCs are just another commercial thing. No different than an auto plant, refinery, semiconductor fab. Do we want to export all of our industry to China as we have been doing? Give them all our mining operations, oil drilling, oil refining, chemical production, auto manufacturing, chip making, aircraft manufacturing, defense…

We are in a new industrial boom. Imagine if we kicked progress out the door in the past. Where would we be as a nation?

Except all of it pretty much went to China anyways. We are so dependent on Chinese manufacturing that even the military would struggle if China stopped supplies components. Yes, our own national security is heavily compromised as a result.

And what happened to the global economy, open markets and good old competition? We off shored pretty much everything to China in the name of the above. So what makes AI so special?

 

[4wd]

Well, seems people are worried that humans will not be the customer - yet the customer is always right LOL
Of course we are spawning AI lawyers to fight over whatever are the real assets in the end …

 

[Owen Lucas]

I'm still trying to figure out what AI is good for. Admittedly a tech dinosaur here. Seems like, despite all the hype, it just perpetuates all the misinformation on the internet. I've heard all the claims by Sam Altman and other venture capitalists that are making big bank on this. But what can it actually do?

Can it paint my house? Can it change oil in my car? Can it weed the garden? Can it cook dinner? Can it mow the lawn? Please explain.

Every major company is using it to supplement and partially power research, development, and as a force multiplier where an employee can now be more productive.

AI results are mostly non-tangible but I can assure you, many small companies already have 6 figure + monthly bills using AI for internal operations like coding.

A website won't be able to mow your lawn either but it has existed for almost 40 years now. But AI will be powering the robots mowing your lawn eventually and today's data centers will be working on the programming, models, chip designs, and everything else that will go into that robot and anything else you will use in the future.

AI is the future, resistance is futile, AI will be everywhere, it will cure cancer and cause social unrest.

Assimilate now or be left behind. AI is the new competitive advantage.

 

[Owen Lucas]

So what makes AI so special?

AI can be used as a weapon.

Imagine placing all internet traffic, whatever intel the military has, whatever signals we monitor, and then using a manufacturing plant sized computer to analyze it all. You'll get answers you could never have gotten befor ein an instant.

Then there is R&D. The MIC could leverage this in many ways beyond my comprehension. Better radar absorbing paint? More efficient propellers? Eh that's probably too basic. More powerful lasers? Ways to take down a drone swarm? AI will cut down the time to do all of this, it is like having 1000 engineers working non stop refining ideas with millions of hours of simulation time happening in seconds.

On the cyber side this is probably even more important, having an AI probe enemy defenses and search for software vulnerabilities to do so is a game changer.

 

[Elkins45]

On the cyber side this is probably even more important, having an AI probe enemy defenses and search for software vulnerabilities to do so is a game changer.

I'm seeing a future where foreign AI actually has the unintended consequence of driving almost all financial traffic off the internet because of nonstop cyber attacks on bank customer accounts. My local independent bank was bought by a small regional chain a few years ago and they have a web portal like most banks do now. I don't even remotely believe their security measures could withstand even a basic attack from a Chinese or Russian AI hacking algorithm.

If I could find a small air-gaped bank somewhere close I would move everything except a small checking account there.

 

[KrisZ]

AI can be used as a weapon.

Imagine placing all internet traffic, whatever intel the military has, whatever signals we monitor, and then using a manufacturing plant sized computer to analyze it all. You'll get answers you could never have gotten befor ein an instant.

Then there is R&D. The MIC could leverage this in many ways beyond my comprehension. Better radar absorbing paint? More efficient propellers? Eh that's probably too basic. More powerful lasers? Ways to take down a drone swarm? AI will cut down the time to do all of this, it is like having 1000 engineers working non stop refining ideas with millions of hours of simulation time happening in seconds.

On the cyber side this is probably even more important, having an AI probe enemy defenses and search for software vulnerabilities to do so is a game changer.

And electronics and chip manufacturing cannot? What about all the technology we've given to them or they stole from us?
We've given all of this to China without blinking an eye. They can monitor most of the US citizens almost at will, and who know show far they can probe our government.

None of that was ever a threat, even though plenty of people saw the insanity in giving away all of our knowledge for nothing, but all of the sudden AI has to be protected at all costs? I don't believe that for a second.
I think the silicon valley giants want uncle Sam to secure their future and pay for it as well.

 

[goingplacesanddoingstuff]

I see them like a lot of industrial infrastructure. Necessary, but need to be zoned correctly.

 

[GrumpyCat]

I'm open to insight. It seems like this message board has worked just fine since 2002 w/o Ai and data centers that suck up enormous resources. Like I said, I've heard a lot of bad about Ai but would like to know more.

I seriously doubt this site is hosted on a PC in someone’s garage, most likely in a virtual machine image that can be moved between CPUs professionally hosted. Multiple images run simultaneously to handle load. A data center, most likely multiple data centers around the world.

As for AI, lots of F.U.D. about new technology. Someones are out there with cash demanding to buy AI services. Wouldn’t get nearly as much complaining if one were to build a car factory, or electronics. Or a silicon foundry to make chips? We badly need a lot of those.

 

[Owen Lucas]

And electronics and chip manufacturing cannot? What about all the technology we've given to them or they stole from us?

The model and programming is the most important part of AI IMHO.

Most of the physical stuff can be copied, same as software, but having the most advanced model and it's capabilities are the secret part.

Sure, it can be stolen, but I bet this information is protected as much as other nation secrets.

The AI race isn't just about chips, it's about model development, efficiency, and capability.