I work in the data center industry—my company designs them.

Traditional IT server racks typically draw about 12 kW of power. Most of this power is converted into heat, so we must provide an equal amount of cooling. These servers must never experience a power failure or overheat, so we use massive generators, battery farms, and chilled water buffer tanks to ensure redundancy.

Now, with the rise of AI, many data centers are undergoing major overhauls. IT racks have gone from drawing 12–15 kW each to 40–100 kW. This represents a huge increase in both weight and power density. As a result, most cooling and electrical systems need to be completely redesigned. Much of the older equipment is being replaced with new infrastructure.

Even a simple Google search now uses up to 10 times more power than before, as AI has been integrated into their search function.

The environmental impact of AI is pretty devastating—I don't think many people are aware of this.

Power consumption before and after AI searches is the same as power consumption for monetary transactions before and after Bitcoin and the likes.

Both technologies suck donkey balls and still haven't done remotely what they've promised and have made everything net worse.

I think the future's back in specialized devices. You give me a tablet that shows only textbooks, I read textbooks. You make it also access the internet, and I will immediately and exclusively use it for porn.

The first thing I do with any new device I buy is run porn on it lol. It's the initiation ceremony for my gadgets

Maybe someone should let them know how often AI is wrong?

AI didnt replace cryptocurrency

I wouldn't mind if online textbooks had a button on the side that is just a looser search (like what Google was a few years ago).

It'd be handy if I could type in "gravity problem with the bunny" instead of having to either search for "bunny" and flip through all the results, or try to remember/guess the exact wording of the problem.

You probably could still call it AI too, since there's likely some small machine learning model involved in that search.

I work in the data center industry—my company designs them.

Traditional IT server racks typically draw about 12 kW of power. Most of this power is converted into heat, so we must provide an equal amount of cooling. These servers must never experience a power failure or overheat, so we use massive generators, battery farms, and chilled water buffer tanks to ensure redundancy.

Now, with the rise of AI, many data centers are undergoing major overhauls. IT racks have gone from drawing 12–15 kW each to 40–100 kW. This represents a huge increase in both weight and power density. As a result, most cooling and electrical systems need to be completely redesigned. Much of the older equipment is being replaced with new infrastructure.

Even a simple Google search now uses up to 10 times more power than before, as AI has been integrated into their search function.

The environmental impact of AI is pretty devastating—I don't think many people are aware of this.

And what exactly are AI textbooks? Does AI generate a quiz? Or generate the facts? I feel there is quite some bandwidth there and the article doesn't say a lot.