Subj : Re: AI is sucking up powe
To   : AARON THOMAS
From : Mike Powell
Date : Thu Jan 02 2025 10:18:00

>  MP> That is what I thought, at first.  That, and the same left-leaning tech
>  MP> folks who blame cow farts won't see any issue with their AI data centers
>  MP> eating up power so that Alexa or Siri can give them better answers to
>  MP> queries about cow farts.

> I'm getting mixed signals from the media about AI. It's either wonderful, or
> it's going to kill us all (but definitely not both.)

I am having a discussion in DoveNet TechTalk where the other party brought
up how AI has sort of been used for years in their field.  It provided
various mathematical and data point information that was accurate.  It is
when they try to get AI to do things that require it to "think like a
human," rather than a computer, is where they are getting into trouble.

>  MP> However, that was not actually what the article was about.  I read a few
>  MP> paragraphs.  I am not an electrical engineer, but apparently living near
>  MP> one of these data centers puts your local grid at risk, and can also
>  MP> potentially do damage inside your home.  It has something to do with the
>  MP> steady wavelengths that the power normally travels in being disrupted.

>It's just that there are other things that consume lots of electricity that
an
>sprout up in any neighborhood (besides AI, like steel mills or other
ndustrial
>plants.) Our local grids are always at risk.

>I understand that data centers can consume a lot, but I'm still in the dark
>about how AI demands more electric than normal webservers.

Webservers comsume electric for sure, but they don't do a lot of processor
intense work.  The processors in an AI datacenter are going to be different
-- think more "heavy duty" -- and the machines are going to pull a lot more
power than a machine that serves up web pages.

For industrial plants, the power companies are probably taking the extra
draw into account.  For a "data center," they may not realize how much
power the owner is actually planning to consume so they may treat it like
any other office facility.

There were probably details in the article that neither of us read that
would shed more light on it.  The article was somewhat technical and, not
being an electrical engineer, the parts I read took some pondering.


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