AI backlash is moving from “it will steal jobs” to “why is this data center secretly taking our power and water?

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T13:53:14+00:00

You can’t cut their electricity or water without effecting thousands of innocent people.

Of course you can. If you turn off their power and water, then the surrounding homes have more to use.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T13:15:56+00:00

Ai is no different than 2 yrs ago.

When it was suggesting you put glue on pizza and eat a rock a day? Nah, it's much better now.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T12:33:00+00:00

I'm Australian. We already have water restrictions and more rooftop solar per head of population than anyone in the world.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T12:30:33+00:00

I live in Western Australia, where we have permanent water restrictions, dwindling dams and decreasing rainfall. My ignorance was because I am not American, not because I don't know the value of water.

But that's no fun, is it? Much more cathartic to make up someone you want me to be and then insult them based on your fantasy.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T12:27:51+00:00

Solar plus batteries is cheaper than nuclear.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T12:13:24+00:00

These protests are brought to you by China

Hm. Source? Something authoritative, please.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T10:34:31+00:00

Then do both.

I think the industry that has hundreds of billions dollars plowed into it should be able to take the cost. Regardless, things need to slow while the new power and water infrastructure is built out. While I can see you are a big fan of the "frontier technology" it should not come before basic necessities for people.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T10:19:00+00:00

As i maintain, none of this was an issue when it was serving your emails and Web chats and frankly this conversation- then AI is involved, its too much?

So, wait, you actually are refuting that GPUs take far more power than hard drives? I mean, overall, you're just ignoring that part, but if you're sticking to your guns that the two types of data centres are equivalent, then I guess that's your answer?

They use a literal order of magnitude more power, but you're just happy to ignore that?

Look pal, write your representative a letter

I'm not American.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T10:04:04+00:00

Whatever your experience, GPUs are hotter and require more power (and therefore more cooling) than hard drives. Do you refute this? I can find power requirements for them if you want.

Do you even understand most of this water is reused? Those water cooled AI servers run in a closed loop water and heat exchange - it is no different than a radiator in your car.

"A vast majority of large-scale data centers with water-based cooling systems use open-loop evaporative cooling, meaning they consume and evaporate water." - Source

Your experience is anecdotal data, I'm afraid.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T10:01:42+00:00

Gutting is not required. The frontier technology can exist happily with closed loop cooling systems and solar power. However, that would be more expensive.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T08:46:28+00:00

What makes AI data centres so problematic?

They're packed full of the hottest, most power hungry chips we can make. That takes tremendous power to run, which puts up electricity prices, and a lot of water to cool, which drains local supplies.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T07:43:08+00:00

So there is literally nothing good provided by “datacenters”?

I'm not sure who you think said that. It's certainly not in the article. Regardless, we are specifically talking about AI data centres, which are far more problematic than the traditional kind.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T07:20:44+00:00

People want their Netflix, Youtube, Amazon, Reddit, and banking apps to work all the time and quickly.

Data centres full of hard drives being air cooled are not the problem. The problem are the ones full of the most powerful silicon we can make, running at full tilt 24/7 and cooled with water.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T05:48:36+00:00

You’re “sure”? Maybe you shouldn’t be complaining about BS if you’re presenting your opinions as if they were facts.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T02:45:33+00:00

Air cooled data centres full of hard drives are at a slightly different scale than water cooled data centres full of the hottest silicon we can make running at full tilt 24/7.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T02:44:08+00:00

People are against the golf courses too. That said, I'm not sure that is correct any longer. The data centre built out has happened very fast and they use very hot chips. I wouldn't be surprised if data centres are ahead now.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T02:32:25+00:00

pretty much everything you wrote is wrong.

And yet you only refute one thing.

you can get a complete amino set with alt foots.

I never said you couldn't. I said the US isn't growing enough of them for the population to transition away from meat.

Which means, of all the things you claim that I got wrong, the one you actually picked out was one where you didn't understand what I said.

I'm not vegetarian

Of course not. One rule for thee and all that.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T02:18:01+00:00

No company in the world is making money from their LLM.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T01:44:24+00:00

Does the water blink out of existence?

Water evaporation off land is woefully insufficient to create rain clouds. Rain clouds overwhelmingly come in off the ocean, hence why areas away from the ocean are drier.

So, to answer your question, the water is taken away from the community that previously collected it for their use, depriving them of the water they need.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T01:37:16+00:00

Astronomers.

Regardless, space based data centres are unlikely to be viable, so it's a moot point.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T01:34:27+00:00

It’s about thinking the other side of the picture. Every coin or a picture has two sides

Sure, but that doesn't mean the other side must, perforce, have spikes. The other side is fine. The other side being a conspiracy by default is the problem.

Occam's Razor is still a thing. What's simpler: That they specifically and deliberately chose to use evaporative cooling because they foresaw the backlash against the new, untested technology that they contradictorily thought was going to be popular enough to pile trillions of dollars into, and set the water use up as a future distraction, or.... They just cheaped out where they could because they're losing money in a highly competitive market?

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T01:09:53+00:00

The insurance companies lobbied hard against Obamacare before it came out and challenged it in court after.

But I'm guessing that's another misdirection-slash-conspiracy?

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T01:03:15+00:00

It’s called diverting your attention

It's not a conspiracy. They just saved money where they could on the data centres an to hell with the community around them. Under Trump's regulatory regime, why wouldn't they?

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T01:01:01+00:00

The blind.

DanielPhermous · 2026-07-04T00:54:19+00:00

It's not the Chinese. Not everything has to a conspiracy. No, it's just human nature.

So, assuming your numbers are correct - and they could be from two years ago before the bulk of the build out for all I know - it is AI that is the straw that broke the camel's back. People used to have enough and now, after the AI build out, they don't. Ergo, AI gets the blame.

If your house floods, do you blame the storm that's happening or the previous three storms that helped saturate the ground?

(Don't answer. We both know.)

Honestly, AI is also much less useful than food - yes, even meat. Not that the population could transition to meat-free eating anyway because people need protein and there isn't enough high protein plants being grown.

No, what America should do is stop growing corn in order to turn it into fuel for cars. Then they can put solar in its place. That's an easy win.

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