Is this the woke-free AI they want?
this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2025
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I saw the headlineand thought, bet this is the one where I live... Correct
The linked video is a bit unclear to me. The don't explain the modes well. Mostly it seems to just show heat. According to the description it's a Teledyne FLIR G620, which should be able to detect Methane and other VOCs. But it's not clear to me how we are supposed to distinguish hot rising CO2 and H2O from any potentially leaking Methane, in those pictures.
Video in question https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4prazMVylRs
Polluting the sky in order to pollute the internet 👌
Its apparent that the health of the internet has a direct impact on the health of society.
Now that's rad. Been consuming leftist niche internet for a while, never read such connection. You're a poet. Thanks!
How could we have known, that putting the people making the profit in charge of regulation would lead to this!? /s
This article and what they are doing feels fishy, for a few reasons.
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Data centers usually have steam plumes, but only with older cooling systems, newer designs dont vent off nearly as much water vapor and even newer designs have liquid-to-chip, and im not sure how those vent the heat, but its definitly not venting their treated coolant+water. (Because that would be dumb and expensive, but that seems to be the flavor of the day, so lets roll with that)
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If the building was not designed by a monkey, then this is likely just a generator test. I want to put the emphasis on "TEST" because a data center only runs its very inefficent generators when utility power fails. (They will generate exaust, but usually its diesle generators or something with cheap fuel). Fancy gas turbines sounds very "extra" because the reason that deisle generators are used is that they can turn on and hold the load of the building quickly (and the building should have a battery bank to hold that for exactly what ever that time is)
To me, one of two things is wrong, either the camera is just imaging thermals and thats a normal steam plume and they are being sensationalist. OR (and more likely answer). Musk is building some bespoke data center in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere without the local infrastructure to support it and is doing all sorts of expensive additions to make it do what it would be able to if it was clustered with other data centers that share utilitites.
The article is not fishy, you are just uninformed. They are powering the datacenter with turbines fueled by natural gas. You are right about the datacenter though, it's beyond fishy, into crime territory. To top it all off, they have approval to run only a handful of turbines (after not even seeking approval in the first place, i.e. running them illegally), but they are running a ton of them.
You misconstru uninformed for skeptical, an eco-themed news site will have a bias against anything related to data centers, supreme leader musk, or burning hydrocarbons. So apologies if I took the article with a grain of salt.
One of the details that I spotted was that the images in the article show the FLIR logo, which is a type of equipment that one would use to view methane plumes, and was used to dramatic effect during the Aliso Canyon gas storage field leaks. That may not be a convincing detail on its own, but one that I thought suggested some credibility.
uninformed for skeptical
Perhaps one begets the other.
We dont have to guess, it is literally powered by these generators because the local infrastructure cannot support it.
You'e considering Memphis the middle of nowhere?
Compared to the data center sprawl in other areas, yes. As others have pointed out, this appears to be a gross over-utilizarion of the local utilities and is just burning shit to make the building work where noone is paying attention to it.
They aren't over-utilizing it though. They're supplementing with portable generators. Even if you've never been to Memphis, you can still look up the info to realize your argument is hyperbolic.
When building a data center why wouldn't you secure the required electricity and water before committing to a site?
The power companies demanded guarantees, so they wouldn't be on the hook for investing in infrastructure and power generation if the whole hype disappeared the next month. Tech bros then went "how can we do it quick and dirty when we can't get others to pay for it?"
Typically.
This is Musk's AI project though, he's not going to wait to secure power or permits or environmental impact studies or anything like that...
Did Jenson deliver the G100s? Grab some generators and get pumping.
Why would capitalists give a fuck about any constraint? We've conditioned them for a century to believe they can do anything they want with impunity.
"Nonono! It's, uuh... it's like fairy dust, but from the AI!"
I thought they where using commercial off the shelf generators?
They are using portable generators only intended for short term usage in an emergency. One of the tradeoffs of being portable is that the generators are unable to combust the natural gas "cleanly"(under sufficient temperature and with enough oxygen, resulting in this ideal reaction: CH4 + 2 O2 -> 2 H2O + CO2), leading to incomplete reactions releasing many pollutants, most of which are at least suspected of causing cancer. This is acceptable in an emergency but not if some narcist runs them in a population center without proper permission to feed his horribly inefficient model in an attempt to keep up with other AI labs.
As someone studying mechanical engineer I'm well aware of the process. I'm also well aware that all commercial generators must abide by environmental regulations.