Britain opens floodgates to US datacenter investment Just weeks after the British government designated datacenters as critical national infrastructure (CNI), a quartet of US tech firms have committed to the UK as the place to invest in their data facilities. climate protest Objections to datacenter builds may be overruled now they are 'Critical National Infrastructure' READ …
"Tech leaders from all over the world are seeing Britain as the best place to invest with a thriving and stable market for datacenters and AI development," Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said in a statement.
I guess those 'Tech leaders' haven't noticed the UK has the highest electricity costs in Europe, if not the world. Throwing up light industrial units for bit-barns is easy, providing stable power is hard, and getting harder by the week.
Since "AI" in the sense of Large Language Models is basically bullshit-generation [see: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-024-09775-5], could this be the next tech bubble to burst?
The 'Bubble' is already bursting ... but it is in S L O W M O T I O N . . . . .
The commitment will fade very quickly once the AI [cough spit] scam is fully realised by the 'Great unwashed' !!!
You can only explain away the 'Hallucinations' so many times before someone asks the obvious question ... 'Is it fixed yet !!!???'
When the answer is 'Nope !!!' the realisation that the output of the many many LLM's has to be filtered/checked by 'Meatsack computing resources' will somewhat constrain the big plans as there will be a shortage of 'experts' to do this work.
Promise BIG, deliver small .... as per usual for the 'Latest & greatest *Big thing* from the world of Venture capital and other risky investments'.
P.S.
I hear a fully working Fusion reactor will be available in only 10 years ... as per usual !!!
Keep it quiet ... don't want to open the flood gates before I invest my/your money !!!
:)
It's not surprising to see governments rowing back on climate change. It was easy a decade or more ago to set goals - even in legislation - for targets way down the road. They were far away to be SEP. Although logically it would require government action, possibly unpopular government action to meet them but they were still far enough away to let them be SEP. Now we're getting closer. The action hasn't been taken. To even get close to meeting them action would have to be taken Right Now. Aspiration is no longer enough and inspiration is lacking.
To even get close to meeting them action would have to be taken Right Now. Aspiration is no longer enough and inspiration is lacking.
It's interesting to see some.. err.. Green shoots of recovery, eg this article from the Bbc on the AlphaGoo nuclear option-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c748gn94k95o
Nuclear power, which is virtually carbon free and provides electricity 24 hours a day, has become increasingly attractive to the tech industry as it attempts to cut emissions even as it uses more energy.
The Bbc has traditionally been very anti-nuclear but there have been more positive noises, hopefully recognising that current energy policy just isn't working. The UK needs to drastically reduce energy costs, not just to inflate the AI bubble.
Nuclear power the ultimate in privatising profit and letting the public pick up the 100,000 year cost of looking after the shit they produce to make their profit. Recently got better for them, as we are also paying for construction via higher energy bills before they even generate a watt.
Nuclear power the ultimate in privatising profit and letting the public pick up the 100,000 year cost of looking after the shit they produce to make their profit.
I figured a neo-luddite would be along to spread FUD. Stuff like '100,000 year cost' might scare the ignorant, but basic physics tells you that anything radioactive for 100ka isn't very radioactive. But it can be literal shit. So there's a lot of deadly radioactive material produced by the NHS when they feed it to patients, then have to collect patients poop in containers for safe disposal.
The vast majority of radioactive waste by volume is stuff like that, which currently costs a large fortune to handle. Which can be as simple as digging a big hole in the ground and plonking it there until politicians get their poop together and start digging.
Alternatively, some reactor designs can just burn it and recyle it that way. There's a lot of useful fuel sitting around that's currently sitting around as very expensive 'waste'. Plus another thing neo-luddites don't seem to understand is isotopes used in radiotherapy, x-raying patients or industrial uses like x-raying aircraft parts for safety are produced in reactors. It's another one of those fun things that 'renewables' can't do, and contribute to higher costs. Plus nuclear alchemy is fascinating, and used to create a lot of vital materials.
We already have to import up to 20% of our leccy from Europe and they want to use another 20% on these DC's?
Watch out people. We had all better get used to regular Black and Brownouts.
If I was in power, I'd insist that any new DC has to also build 150% of its power consumption of new generation and provide that capacity of grid connected battery just to even out loads.
I'm not in power so nowt will happen and we will end up in darkness while all these DC's crunch AI data until the cows come home... who can't be milked because of the power being out.
We are truly doomed by this stupid Gubbermint.
Things that are announced in advance by politicians with lots of fanfare rarely actually happen.
On paper, the UK is 25% poorer, so it is a bit like a Western North Korea. But that doesn't mean it can be so easily exploited for cheap labour. The UK is desperately short of (competent, skilled) workers courtesy of Brexit, and Starmer won't fix that. Tribalism is the order of the day for both parties. Construction workers and materials are also scarce.
And pissing off the locals by hogging their water and power, and building on their front lawn doesn't end well. Bad things can happen on dark nights to unwanted erections in isolated places. Rural crime has a police response time in days. That's how long it is before the old bill send you a letter with a crime number in it for the insurance, instead of turning up. They are short of staff and cash too. US companies need to do more research before setting up in the third world's newest member state.
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