We need to talk about data centres.
For the 2nd or 3rd time this week I've seen someone comment on a new data centre build with a stat about how 80% of data is never accessed. Then they talk about the energy and cooling used in modern DCs.
The reality is that data storage is actually incredibly efficient, and uses fuck all power. A hard disk is less than 10w and stores multiple users data.
Storing data, our photos, our memories, our history. Is not the problem.
What is? 1/n
The thing driving the need for the bigger more power and water hungry data centres is AI. Sparkling autocarrot. Where as a machine in a rack full of hard disks might consume a couple of hundred watts. A machine loaded up with a typical load of 8 "AI accelerators" can be pulling in the region of 5kw. Over an order of magnitude more power than the energy needed to store the lifes photos of hundreds of people.
And why ? To what end?
2/n
It's not just AI.
AI is ofc exponentially worse than data centers but the latter are a huge problem.
@lil_meow_meow if we take out the AI machines we can get a lot more out of the DCs we already have.
Absolutely!
And yet, DCs are a big problem.
I'm not saying abolish them! But they must be powered by renewables and the waste heat (is this the correct term? Or Denglish? 🙃 ) capitalized on.
