Ah, capitalism!
Technically it’s socialism - the population is subsidising the datacenters. It’s only capitalism when it comes to getting paid
It is not socialism. It is literally capitalism. Socialism is a form of government. It is true that the costs of higher energy are being spread across society and therefore socialized, but that is not the same as socialism.
Socialize the expenses, privatize the profits. Everything is working as designed.
I participate in the “residential smart thermostat rewards” program where they can adjust my temps during high demand periods. In the past it has been like if it’s 100F out they will bump my settings from 77 to 79 which is not a big deal and gets me like two weeks of free electricity.
This year those mother fuckers have been bumping the thermostat up to like 86 when it’s 87 outside. Gee I wonder what the fucking difference is now? I can reject their temp settings in the app, but I can only do it like three times before they cancel my rewards. I’m half tempted to go wire up a little Arduino in series with the thermostat so I can control the AC without touching the smart thermostat if needed.
I had a similar deal (I actually got a free Nest thermostat out of it), but eventually I disabled that feature. Instead, I now use a fixed temperature upper bound that is at the edge of my comfortable range. Of course, this is because I can afford to run the air conditioning when it gets that hot.
This is honestly the first year I’ve even noticed the events. Previously I’d notice the email like a few days later and check the logs to see what they did. This was the first time where I was just at home and felt noticeably uncomfortable and checked the thermostat to see they’d set it to 86F which is outrageous. Its pissing me off enough that I want to cheat the system instead of just opt out, because like… The fucking audacity.
To be clear, this is a generic supply and demand effect that isn’t specific to datacenters. It’s how any market works.
If they’re using those centers to generate revenue and they can afford to pay the electricity bill, there’s something off. My neighbors aren’t paying for my electricity.
I am not paying for the hood milk factories electricity, I am not paying for the John Hancock building’s electricity, I am not paying for the liquor stores electricity. Walmart and micky d’s are paying their own bills.
There’s no reason the common person should be paying for the electrical bill of another, especially when revenue of 200$ to 250$ per person per annual subscription services so… yearly. …
“Hey we’re making money off of you but you’re gonna pay for our store to exist…”
🤷🏻♂️ Someone is bribing the department of energy.
To be clear, the amount of data centers being built is directly affecting this, so the anger directed to data centers is more than justified
If I got that letter I’d be on the verge of going Paper Mario on that fuckin place
Yeah… Burn the data center down…
There was an article I read a while ago that kind of explained it. Basically, the increased datacenter demand forces the grid operator to build more capacity, which requires money. I think there are meetings where they decide how it is distributed across all their corporate and resident ratepayers. Basically the lobbyists argue that the since this new capacity technically benefits rate payers in the form of more capacity, they should take a share of it. Even though none of us are actually going to be using that capacity…
And it doesn’t help at all that the grid companies are monopolies
But correct me if I’m wrong if the data centers are the cause of the electrical increase then shouldn’t they be offering to relieve the city of the cost because they’re the source? Like if I wanted to run 3kw of electricity on a 220v outlet with a laboratory grade vacuum pump for an hour, I would need to pay more for my electrical bill for my house only, right? My neighbors wouldn’t see a spike, I would see a spike.
My neighbors using their central air have a higher bill than me because they use more, that’s always how it’s been.
If they’re the cause they should have to pay more than the rest of us. If they’re using more energy, they should have to pay more, if they can’t pay to do upfront costs with the energy companies maybe they shouldn’t be building them. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 It makes you wonder who the hell is selling these people predatory contracts.
You have always paid for millionaires/billionaires projects. The government spends your taxes and gives it to their corporations to build infrastructure and weapons. How do you think we built railroads and space shuttles and tanks?
Those aren’t great examples. Not sure how it is in the us, but the rails were originally primarily built buy private businesses, some were nationalized, and are now private again. Space exploration is a net benefit to science and understanding, that’s why is government funded. Tanks fall into defense spending, yes the money does come from public pockets and goes to private businesses, but that’s because of the MIC lobbying
Unpopular opinion, but when competing for a scarce resource, everyone pays more because it is more scarce. Then more gets created (at least in the case of power) and the system equalizes.
It would be better if there was a provision to cover the spike for ratepayers for some number of years.
Quebec has it right, citizens pay the cost of production and their price is protected. The power sold to Americans is sold at market price.
businesses actually pay less for electricity than residentials, they get bulk discounts, residents get hikes.
Large data centers often pay less than home users (due to economies to scale)
You’re paying thrice:
1: With your spare time in which you give advice on forums and maintain Wikipedia pages. This information is getting slurped up by AI crawlers.
2: Implicitly with your money, to get some new AI doodad on your laptop or your phone, trained on 1.
3: See meme.And that’s why billionaires exists.
See meme
Wait, which?
Hell with billionaires and tax cuts to increase something the average person won’t enjoy, I bet it’s even more than thrice.
Property tax increase cause property is used but not taxed due to being a ‘big project’, if another company built there (besides say wal mart it’d be taxed)
Power bill increase, which we see happens to OPs post.
Using land that could benefit the area, it’s probably a large complex that could help the locals and not make their power bill larger.
Having a complex that heats up local area for things not beneficial to locals. Global warming but thankfully some ai model will grow?
Using water that makes drinking water worse for locals. Read stories of people near data centers, losing all water pressure so the data center can have water. Cause that’s more important than people.
Only helping the person who built it vs the locals. I really have no idea who data centers help. I assume some are for the crappy bit we see when we Google but so many must be private. Also who hasn’t learned to go through search results? Seriously that’s a skill needed, if you don’t have it you need to learn. I may have accepted the new paradigm but I would prefer a bit of work going back to searching.
There no good reason for this crap. They get built but don’t benefit anyone but the rich. They just want serfs anyways, is that the real future?
FWIW,
wp:Opposition to AI data centers,
wp:Military applications of artificial intelligence,
wp:Category:Artificial intelligence,
36 subcats and 247 articles,
wp:Discrimination against robots,
wp:Category:Artificial intelligence controversies,
3 subcats and 27 articles
wp:Category:Existential risk from artificial intelligence,
64 articles
wp:How to Survive a Robot Uprising,
How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion is a semi-satirical book by Daniel Wilson published in November 2005.
Critics believe that the data center has the capability to process “all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Internet searches, as well as all types of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital ‘pocket litter’.”[6] In response to claims that the data center would be used to illegally monitor email of U.S. citizens, in April 2013 an NSA spokesperson said, “Many unfounded allegations have been made about the planned activities of the Utah Data Center, … one of the biggest misconceptions about NSA is that we are unlawfully listening in on, or reading emails of, U.S. citizens. This is simply not the case.”[4]
wp:Ethics of artificial intelligence,
Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence is a book on artificial intelligence (AI) by Dan McQuillan, published in 2022 by Bristol University Press.
wp:Category:Criticism of artificial intelligence
1 subcat with 32 articles, and 12 articles
wp:Democratic backsliding in the United States,
wp:Wikipedia:Writing articles with large language models,
Search Google: How to destroy a data center
including:
Datacenter Violence
https://www.reddit.com/r/aiwars/comments/1pm2h7w/datacenter_violence/
What would be the easiest way to stop data from flowing out of a data center? I’m writing a novel where a terrorist needs to successfully halt all data flowing from a large data center. Would it be best to destroy fiber cables? A Virus?
What is the point of this collection of links? What are you trying to communicate with this comment?
Spam account? seems like ai slop
Check my profile, and you’ll see how spammy it is.
They might serve more than AI crawlers.
They’re putting data centers in near me (they have been heavily protested, but of course that doesn’t do shit, the local government holds lots of meetings that are crowded with people saying they don’t want them, and then they shrug and approve them anyway. The last meeting I heard about they just flat out cancelled because too many people were planning on coming and speaking against it). I got a letter from my power company that they’re raising electric rates, and would I like to contribute to a fund to help pay other people’s bill?
Replace them. Either recruit a candidate or run yourself. Ignoring your voters should have consequences.
most of them been bought off, even if they arnt seeking re-election, they ram through the approval after getting a hefty fee for themselves.
Oh I know exactly how I’m voting next election, but the problem is that I live in a conservative area and these dumb fuckers wouldn’t vote for their own self interest if you held a gun to their heads, because if they vote for things that benefit them then a brown person or someone on disability might also benefit.
some of them dont even votes, even magats.
This conundrum is why America has been continuously turning into a shit hole for the lower classes. It goes all the way back to right after the civil rights movement. By the early 70s, most public pools were filled with concrete (supplemented via private country club pools of course) and white private schools were opened up all over the South to exclude blacks. These examples are just a small part of what has been going on over the last 50+ years.
the bigger issue is that education is mostly underfunded, or defunded. defunded is where gop do it to rural areas. even in places that are blue can be underfunded. as i see them still using the same version of books like 10+years ago without much updates, plus if you looking at how they are shuffling students around to make sure the funding for the budget, if the student is struggling.
Guess what? It was defunded because the money got poured into private schools and it doesn’t help public schools in America rely on local property taxes, so low income schools get less money due to the property taxes netting less money.
MAGAts want all to suffer, including themselves, if it also means that POCs, women, LGBTQ+, foreigners, leftists, liberals, and other never-Trumpers suffer.
Not to sidestep it, but at what point is doing personal solar a better deal, if you own that is
Unfortunately I rent an apartment. I’d love to do a solar array on my balcony, but it’s small and faces north so I don’t think it would be cost effective.
Is electricity where you are much cheaper at night?
It’s the same rate regardless of the time of day.
Almost every provider these days has time of use rate plans available, at least in urban areas.
sad to read that.
Here in Ontario, the rates are lower at night and during the weekends (a little less than half).
https://www.hydroone.com/rates-and-billing/rates-and-charges/electricity-pricing-and-costs
Isn’t sharing the bill while a small group profits exactly how capitalism works?
Time to molatov cocktail the AI daracenter. A sudden unexpected fire happened. Dunno how 🤷♀️
Guess they can just get AI to figure out whodunnit
Data centers have lobbying force the citizens lack, they can negotiate for better prices.
Data centers also force power grid upgrades, the cost of which gets unfairly distributed to consumers.
And, data centers have the technology to take advantage of peak pricing, running on low power when electricity costs more and amping up when the price is more favorable.
People need to fight back in force, write their representatives, their energy companies, show up to town halls and increase public pressure to make sure data centers are paying their fair share.
lobbying as in bribing the govorner here and there, the council members to fast track it before people can block it.
I emailed the department of energy asking it why the cost of the data centers energy is being pushed onto the people and I also mentioned how it seems like a direct conflict of interest.
You think those clowns care about your email?? Probably got put in the trash as soon as it arrived.
just like emailing or contacting your senator/house member is just as futile, they likely dont read it, or have an assistant to filter it out.
Still worth a try asking, right?
Debt trickles down, money trickles up
