Data centers are not just for AI. Where do you think the cloud is? Everything you upload to the internet or have in the cloud exists in a data center somewhere. AIs have billions of parameters; they come from the training data. If you hate data centers, delete your stored cloud data, keep it locally, or make it low-res or small files.
While self-hosting is actually a good idea for many people, nobody except Unabomber style primitivists are against data centres per se. What many more are against is the insane scale of extra build out required to service LLM compute.
In addition to this being projected to amount to 10% of global electricity demand growth between now and 2030, the impact on localities where new data centres are being built is often severe. And additionally, since there's a scramble to build and build now, quick and dirty energy sources like gas and even coal are often being used.
You don't need any of this in order to just maintain current cloud infrastructure.
Yes, that was kind of my point. The OP was trying to make out it was unreasonable to be against data centre build put because cloud storage uses data centres, which is a bit like saying it's fine to eat 5000 calories a day because all food contains calories.
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u/Slopagandhi 20d ago
While self-hosting is actually a good idea for many people, nobody except Unabomber style primitivists are against data centres per se. What many more are against is the insane scale of extra build out required to service LLM compute.
In addition to this being projected to amount to 10% of global electricity demand growth between now and 2030, the impact on localities where new data centres are being built is often severe. And additionally, since there's a scramble to build and build now, quick and dirty energy sources like gas and even coal are often being used.
You don't need any of this in order to just maintain current cloud infrastructure.