This should be bigger news: AI is *revitalizing the fossil fuels industry.* Bloomberg called it a "surprising resurgence" in gas-fired power plants when we were on the brink of a transition to clean energy. And big tech has nothing to say about it. www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/ai-is-revi... - ThreadSky

bcmerchant.bsky.social • 161 days ago

This should be bigger news: AI is *revitalizing the fossil fuels industry.*

Bloomberg called it a "surprising resurgence" in gas-fired power plants when we were on the brink of a transition to clean energy.

And big tech has nothing to say about it.

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/ai-is-revitalizing-the-fossil-fuels

Comments

monkeybones.bsky.social•161 days ago

A lot of these gas plants are being built to supplement solar and wind while they close their coal plants. Gas generation has the ability to ramp up quickly which helps fill in the gaps for peak power requirements which solar and wind can't produce in time.

herne.bsky.social•161 days ago

"AI helping destroy the environment."

luizabrandao.bsky.social•161 days ago

📌

blacklightan.bsky.social•161 days ago

Why are corporations like this? I know the answer is money, but can't they see how short sighted this is? You can't make money if the climate collapses!

billjank.bsky.social•161 days ago

No, but they think they can buy their own survival.

0llymelancholy.com•159 days ago

matthopeart.bsky.social•161 days ago

Meanwhile we are told to recycle to save the planet. It’s truly maddening

bcmerchant.bsky.social•161 days ago

truly, truly is

keatiki.bsky.social•161 days ago

Servers produce great quantities of heat. This should not be wasted. There are places where "free" heat would be useful such as locations in cold places, swimming pools etc... That's where those AI servers need to be located.

noticingclimate.bsky.social•161 days ago

re: brink of a transition to clean energy - since when?
How is this correct?
"The correct takeaway from this WaPo analysis is that the energy and water demands of generative Al are trivial compared to (say) airconditioning and ricegrowing. I made this point a while back, but no one wants to hear it"

bcmerchant.bsky.social•161 days ago

this is addressed in my story

noticingclimate.bsky.social•161 days ago

No, @bcmerchant.bsky.social the brink of a transition is not addressed, and there is no brink. There is no transition to renewables. We're using more fossil fuels than ever. Look at a graph, even from a fossil fuel/right wing sponsored org:

bcmerchant.bsky.social•161 days ago

Oh — yes that was over broadly stated, investment in gas was on the decline until this, not like we’d achieved a true energy transition my bad

noticingclimate.bsky.social•161 days ago

"Investment in gas was on the decline".
Australia here, c/o https://IEA.org:
USA isn't much better. There is no brink. There is no transition.

mike10010100.bsky.social•161 days ago

I'm not really sure how it's addressed?

strigoi.bsky.social•161 days ago

I think we're gonna have to break some shit, guys.

wolfesghost.bsky.social•161 days ago

So Skynet doesn't nuke the planet on one day, it just lures humanity with poorly written essays and emails and indulges in ridiculous image creation.

keroll.bsky.social•161 days ago

It doesn't.. human feed it to much of trash information for those menial task that the system itself had enough.

It will happen..

b-flo.bsky.social•161 days ago

It's almost as if AI is a net negative designed to enrich a few at the expense of society at large. A worse version of crypto, in other words, since it's being forced upon us as opposed to simply being a means of extracting wealth from suckers.

yeshes.online•160 days ago

They cannot transition fast enough to clean energy, no one incentivizing that move. So yeah, fear of loss now causing new fossil fuel outlets. Still not "AI" causing it.

https://blog.giovanh.com/blog/2024/09/09/is-ai-eating-all-the-energy-part-2-of-2/

interminable-me.bsky.social•159 days ago

Do you know why they're leaning back to fossil fuels? I was under the impression that solar plants were cheaper to build these days than ff plants. Do solar plants not output the amount of energy, does it seem to be alliances with the ff industry or some other thing?

ambignostic.bsky.social•161 days ago

This is especially bitter because a lot of AI fanatics claim that the excessive computing demands are driving a market for clean energy. It's driving a market, all right

bcmerchant.bsky.social•161 days ago

Microsoft, Google and Meta all have made grand pledges to slash carbon emissions. MS claims it will be "carbon negative" by 2030.

But as a Karen Hao report revealed last week, they're *actively selling AI tools to oil companies* in a market worth ~$75bn annually

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/09/microsoft-ai-oil-contracts/679804/?gift=lhL3dXSYCcu9vqTqEbg0OHfJiu_TRdq079IHN4QaSAE&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

saskboy.bsky.social•154 days ago

Was just sent this minutes ago, then happened upon your thread.
https://theweek.com/tech/microsoft-three-mile-island-nuclear-power-big-tech

bcmerchant.bsky.social•161 days ago

Meanwhile, all the talk of AI and AGI and how much power will be needed to run this LLM-loaded future has driven a boom in *new gas-fired power plant commissions*.

The US is on track to build twice as many plants in 2024 as it did in 2020. Via Bloomberg:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-16/us-natural-gas-power-plants-just-keep-coming-to-meet-ai-ev-electricity-demand?utm_source=website&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=twitter?sref=pFpevH9K

bcmerchant.bsky.social•161 days ago

Analysts and investors who believed we were finally, actually phasing out fossil fuels have revised their estimates. Because, largely, of the AI boom.

bcmerchant.bsky.social•161 days ago

This is a disaster on so many levels, it's hard to know where to start.

But basically the bubble in the AI industry has become a bubble in the utility sector, too.

Fossil fuel co's are using the talk about how much energy-intensive AI the future will need as an excuse to build more gas plants.

bcmerchant.bsky.social•161 days ago

The problem with this is that once those gas plants get built, they stay built. Even if the AI bubble bursts, we're stuck with fossil fuel infrastructure that competes with wind and solar for generations on end.

AI is quite literally entrenching fossil fuel power.

mgraalum.bsky.social•155 days ago

Many of the biggest coal booster are also fossil fuels boosters

bcmerchant.bsky.social•161 days ago

Big tech is mostly ignoring the growing crisis. Despite past pledges to slash emissions or build clean energy, they've said little with regard to AI's climate impacts—just that "it's complicated" (Microsoft) or "it's challenging" (Google) that AGI will help solve climate change one day (All of them)

tom.electron-one.com•161 days ago

I’m slightly (*slightly*) more optimistic that these become stranded assets. But you’re right to flag how it changes investor mindset and cause parallel bubbles.

AI doesn’t have to go full-skynet to cause us harm.

usagi3939.bsky.social•161 days ago

📌

tom.electron-one.com•161 days ago

I find the use of gas telling. Like they know this is short term … a bubble. Need to spin up extra power quickly and gas meets that need. Long term planning matches closer to the MS stories I see about nuclear.

trapdinawrpool.bsky.social•160 days ago

Another dirty secret re AI is the massive amount of water consumed for cooling

usagi3939.bsky.social•161 days ago

📌

spike-x.bsky.social•160 days ago

They're determined to burn the planet down one way or another.

alexandxor.bsky.social•161 days ago

someone should stop them

heikofennec.bsky.social•159 days ago

I'd say toss em into the furnaces they're using but it'd prolly multiply emissions per kilo of bs they're full of.

kroth.bsky.social•157 days ago

3 mile island opening for Microsoft

tilmane.bsky.social•161 days ago

I rather see the biggest risk in social media algorithms spreading fossil fuel industry Propaganda about neglecting climate change.

So Google, Meta, X all making money out of promoting denial claims, as they stick and sell better

skepsisology.bsky.social•161 days ago

Ironic that in order to develop technology that allows for more intelligent decision-making we first need to make one really dumb one

therunepony.bsky.social•156 days ago

The double irony is that the decision making isn't even "more intelligent".

At best, it can provide shallow summaries of answers it was fed, and at worst it simply makes things up.

darkaudit.bsky.social•160 days ago

This is news in the same vein as "the increase in school shootings has revitalized the funeral industry."

jenstone.bsky.social•161 days ago

📌

jewelarachnid.bsky.social•158 days ago

Okokok, one question: why the FUCK do they need ai?

heikofennec.bsky.social•159 days ago

Lead footin the race to most zeros to their bank account without one thought of anything else.

sumac914.bsky.social•159 days ago

F’ing outrageous…for garbage Ai that nobody seems to want 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

isobelhk.bsky.social•160 days ago

📌

dtipson.bsky.social•160 days ago

no matter what anyone does in creating clean energy, the mineral rights for oil gas and coal are owned by a very small number of very powerful people who absolutely will not rest until they are all sold to burn at the highest price possible, or they are stopped

davidneilhamilton.bsky.social•160 days ago

@skyview.social unroll please

tarnado.bsky.social•161 days ago

once again wondering how much of the KSA sovereign wealth is being funneled into this

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