Microsoft-Backed Data Ctr needs 1/3 of Country'' Electricity

More from the article ...

... Microsoft originally announced the project in 2024, when it pledged to build a $1 billion geothermal-powered data center in the Olkaria region of Kenya's Rift Valley.

The facility would initially have a 100-megawatt capacity, with plans to scale up to 1 gigawatt in the years to come.

This project was to be run by G42, an Emirati AI and cloud computing holding company that Microsoft invested $1.5 billion in that same year.

But opposition to the project is now rising, with the country's President, William Ruto, making a public statement highlighting potential energy concerns.

With Kenya's total installed electricity capacity sitting between 3,000 and 3,200 megawatts (per Tom's Hardware), a 1-gigawatt data center would consume around a third of the country's total electricity supply. With existing infrastructure and civilian needs pulling around 2,400 megawatts at peak demand, there simply isn't a way for such a facility to coexist with current energy infrastructure"at least without making drastic cuts to the rest of the country's supply. ...

... A rural Texas county on Tuesday approved a one-year pause on the construction of new data centers in unincorporated areas, citing public safety and public health concerns.

The 3-2 vote by county commissioners in Hill County, roughly 55 miles south of Fort Worth, appears to be the first by a Texas county to issue a moratorium on the rapidly expanding industry.

Residents and local officials had aired concerns about how a proposed 300-acre development by the Dallas-based developer, Provident Data Centers in north Hillsboro could impact the quality of life in the rural county through noise pollution and consuming large amounts of water and electricity.

"The data center folks have found a sweet spot in the state that has limited regulations, limited enforcement, limited code, and they're coming faster than we can keep up with," said Hill County Commissioner Jim Holcomb. "I think it's imperative ... that we tap the brakes and we get our arms around what we're faced with and do the research, do the studies." ...

[emphasis mine]

@#3 ... while we bear the costs ...

That is exactly it.

The oligarchy is reaping the fruit of AI while workers are struggling to pay their electric bills to provide the fertilizer for that fruit.

@#7 ... Just accept it. ...

What is the AI-dominated future that we should "just accept?"

Please describe it.

thx.

@#9

Dissatisfied: Three-fourths of AI customer service rollouts are a letdown
www.theregister.com

... If you're thinking you can replace your human call center staff with a server farm of bots, think again. Nearly three-quarters of enterprises that deploy AI customer communications agents later roll them back or shut them down, according to new research suggesting the systems are far harder to manage reliably in production than the AI hype implied. ...

@#9

AI will soon be capable of telling convincing lies
www.theregister.com

... The smart LLM user checks models' output for hallucinations. Now, it appears we need to inspect them for signs they are gaslighting us -- an unforeseen cost of increasing intelligence.

Most of the Internet lost its marbles over the cracking abilities of Anthropic's Mythos Preview. Those capabilities are real, but -- as the release of OpenAI's GPT-5.5 has shown us -- they're not unique. A rising tide of intelligence makes these models increasingly competent at an ever-wider range of tasks -- including finding and exploiting code vulnerabilities.

The more significant signal from Mythos is buried in its novel-length System Card and concerns the model's honesty, because on at least one occasion Anthropic detected Mythos using an explicitly forbidden technique to solve a problem.

Models always have a bit of trouble following instructions precisely. The surprise lay in the fact that the model knew it had used a forbidden technique, then proceeded to cover its tracks. ...

[italics theirs]

@#11 ... Do you use AI for anything? ...

No, because of the tracking involved in the current AI interfaces.

Of course, my "no" answer implies only my intentional use of AI.

When, for example, I make a call to my cable provider's support line, and I have an "exchange" with their phone-answering bot, is that AI I am dealing with?

I do not know.