AI information facilities are so scorching proper now. Every time generative AI providers churn by way of their massive language fashions to make a chatbot reply one in every of your questions, it takes an excessive amount of processing energy to sift by way of all that information. Doing so can use large quantities of vitality, which implies the proliferation of AI is elevating questions on how sustainable this tech truly is and the way it impacts the ecosystems round it. Some corporations suppose they’ve an answer: working these information facilities underwater, the place they will use the encompassing seawater to chill and higher management the temperature of the exhausting working GPUs inside. But it surely seems simply plopping one thing into the ocean is not at all times a foolproof plan for lowering its environmental affect.
This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED writers Paresh Dave and Reece Rogers be part of the present to speak about their reporting on underwater information facilities and the way the race to energy AI methods is taking its toll on the surroundings.
Present Notes
Learn Paresh and Reece’s story about the plan to place an underwater information heart within the San Francisco Bay. Learn Reece’s tales about how that is AI’s hyper-consumption era and wade through all the AI hype. Learn Lauren’s story in regards to the social community inhabited only by bots. Learn Karen Hao’s story in The Atlantic about how corporations like Microsoft are taking water from the desert to make use of for cooling down AI information facilities. Right here’s the Black Cat substack article about the character Harper from Trade. Observe all of WIRED’s AI and climate protection.
Suggestions
Paresh recommends testing cookbooks out of your native library. Reece recommends the soundtrack of the first Twilight movie for all of your Fall feels. Lauren recommends the HBO present Industry. Mike recommends Anna Weiner’s profile of bicycle designer Grant Peterson in The New Yorker.
Reece Rogers could be discovered on social media @thiccreese. Paresh Dave is @peard33. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight@heads.social. Bling the principle hotline at @GadgetLab. The present is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.
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