Jowi Morales Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
ezst036 In reality, this is one way to save our jobs and careers. All of the companies want AI to automate everything, and then we will have no work. The problem with that is two fold. First, historical atrophy in building power plants. There just is not enough power capacity across the globe to power the Nvidia GPUs which would replace our careers. Second, people hate these data centers. No data centers, no GPUs. No GPUs, no lost jobs to AI . These sorts of protests will save many, many jobs. At least in the short term. A lot of jobs have already been permanently lost to AI. While they can eliminate some jobs. They can't eliminate them all. Reply
alrighty_then Sort of a disconnect between the reasonable request of protesters mentioned at the end of the article ('just plan these out better') vs the signs they carry and their methods ('screw this'). Reply
endocine can't get behind all the radical things the protestors want or maybe even the methods, but do align with the goal to block the data centers, its just gone too far Reply
autobahn Ironically MSFT tends to be a good global citizen, more so that most so unless they are specifying that the datacenter is powered by coal or oil, these protesters are pointing their pitch forks in the wrong direction and at least to me seem ignorant and uninformed on the matter. Reply
logainofhades autobahn said: Ironically MSFT tends to be a good global citizen, more so that most so unless they are specifying that the datacenter is powered by coal or oil, these protesters are pointing their pitch forks in the wrong direction and at least to me seem ignorant and uninformed on the matter. I would almost bet that most of the protesters would only have talking points, but no real substance, on why they are protesting. Seems to be the theme for any time I hear protesters interviewed. Outraged folk with no actual solutions to the problem. Reply
King_V endocine said: can't get behind all the radical things the protestors want or maybe even the methods, but do align with the goal to block the data centers, its just gone too far Could you please elaborate on these "radical" things the protesters want? logainofhades said: I would almost bet that most of the protesters would only have talking points, but no real substance, on why they are protesting. Seems to be the theme for any time I hear protesters interviewed. Outraged folk with no actual solutions to the problem. Wouldn't the protesters' role in this be to state the problems, and the AI builders would be the one tasked with coming up with solutions, to make sure that those AI centers they want to build no longer will create said problems? I mean, I think all the various stories such as "building and installing generators without a permit" and then kind of offhandedly saying "ok, fine, we'll get the permits" after the fact, or, the example in the article, the destruction of hundreds of acres of forest in Finland without getting a permit first? These don't sound like mere "talking points" with "no real substance." Reply
autobahn logainofhades said: I would almost bet that most of the protesters would only have talking points, but no real substance, on why they are protesting. Seems to be the theme for any time I hear protesters interviewed. Outraged folk with no actual solutions to the problem. Agree, they mostly just like to complain and protest and are often uninformed. One day AI datacenter may yield new approaches to curing disease, or hopefully better ways to harness energy, and other things of benefit to humanity and I'm sure the same folks will not be resisting that new treatment if they were to need it or resit accepting lower energy bill or partaking in benefits that it provides. Reply
PEnns logainofhades said: I would almost bet that most of the protesters would only have talking points, but no real substance, on why they are protesting. Seems to be the theme for any time I hear protesters interviewed. Outraged folk with no actual solutions to the problem. Due to past experience, I usually don't like to engage moderators in discussions here. Nevertheless: On what do you base your "bet"? Research or a gut feeling? You think they woke up one day and decided to create something out of thin air to protest about because there is absolutely nothing wrong with having data centers all over the landscape?? How about MS Open AI being used to target and kill civilians in a certain genocide?? Is that something not worthy of a protest?? Reply
JarredWaltonGPU I question how informed these protestors are, and if they're really considering the big picture. Halting technological progress in western countries — US, Europe — effectively scedes the technology sector to China and any other countries that do not stop. It wouldn't happen immediately, but let's say we all manage to put a 2~4 year moratorium on future data center buildout. What will China, India, etc. do in those years? Pretty much everything they can to catch up and surpass us. And I'm not saying these other countries and people are bad or the boogieman, but I appreciate the freedoms I enjoy in the US. That includes the freedom to protest against things that I might not like or agree with. Stopping technological progress would be the best result an opponent to the US could get, in terms of weakening its influence and power. If China as an example wanted to slow down US progress — especially after all the tarriffs of the past couple years — this would basically be the perfect way to do it. Scare tactics, fearmongering, anger and hate pointed at nothing in particular besides the corporations. And the corporations will go where they need to go in order to do what they want to do. Which might end up being China (e.g. steel industry, injection molding, etc.) What's the solution? That I couldn't tell you. But I'm more in favor of advancing technology and AI and building data centers than against it. /$0.02 Reply
SomeoneElse23 I have yet to hear a reason why all these planned data centers need to exist? Instead I hear about how AI will put us all out of work, and how there isn't enough power to feed the systems. And how data centers cause health problems, high electric bills, politicians green light it when the people don't want it, and how they move forward with unlawful methods (forests, turbines, et al) with little to no consequence. It sure seems they are being pushed all over with no definitive upside, and a whole lot of downsides? The masses have plenty of reason to distrust every big corporation behind it and politician who green light's it regardless of what the public wants. I would argue that "more datacenters" != "advancing technology". Arguing that China and India will get there before us sounds a whole lot like an arms race. They might build their Terminators first!? Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/protesters-storm-microsoft-ai-data-center-construction-site-amsterdam-reportedly-first-of-85-targeted-actions-across-europe#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
- Chinese AI lab Moonshot reportedly looked at European data centers to access Nvidia chips, report claims
- Combined OpenSSH and musl-libc flaws let anyone into Alpine Linux and other distros by typing anything over 256 characters as a password
- This $79.98 TP-Link wireless router with Wi-Fi 7 tech is back down to its lowest-ever price
- Nintendo’s latest Zelda remake already circulating online as a Switch 2 ROM
- T-Mobile launches $90 5 Gbps fiber internet plan
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.