Nuking the Windmills
" Anti-Datacenter opposition is blocking billions of dollars for new server farms " T he third episode of this remarkable season of South Park features addiction to chatbots, which is a real malady, and is growing. Whether the disease will last long enough to make it into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is still an open question. A.I. tools like ChatGPT are powered by vast data centers — warehouses filled with power-hungry computer chips — which already consume 4.5 percent of the electricity used in the United States. Over the next three or four years, that number is expected to double or even triple, to as much as 12 percent of electric demand by 2028. At present, about a quarter of data centers’ throughput is for A.I., but that could jump to more than 90% by as soon as 2030. McKinsey projects a 441% global increase in world data-center loads envisaged by 2030. The International Energy Agency projects that by that year, 4.25 ...
