Natural stupidity

“Insatiable”. “Staggering”. “Voracious”. “Obscene”. “Ravenous”. “Shocking”. These are not adjectives describing EU leaders’ appetite for more central government, although they could just as well be used to that end. No, these are adjectives describing something else: AI’s energy consumption.

Reporters have been comparing this consumption to that of small countries. One researcher calculated it at a minimum of 85.4 TWh annually — based on annual NVIDIA deliveries of 1.5 million AI server units.

I won’t even try to pretend I know what “AI server units” means. Software for me is a closed, locked, and hidden in a dungeon book — and I take good care to keep it there.

But when I see alarms blaring about electricity consumption and where are we going to get all that electricity to power our new artificially intelligent toys that are going to make every industry so much more efficient, read profitable, I start paying attention.

Especially when the transitioners show signs of hating it. Because, apparently, powering AI will interfere with the transition. Because, apparently, there’s nowhere near enough non-hydrocarbon energy to meet that demand. It sounds like a perfect example of a perfect storm. It’s delicious.