this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2024
573 points (96.0% liked)

Technology

59415 readers
2821 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] nyan@lemmy.cafe 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Many countries don't use a lot of electricity, especially those where the grids are spotty or in poor repair, or the overall population is small. Even without the AI garbage, I'd expect large tech-sector companies to use more energy than many countries.

(In other words, the headline for this was really poorly chosen. "Microsoft and Google pour more electricity into AI than 100+ countries use" might have gotten a bit closer to the actuall point, if it's actually true.)

[–] dan@upvote.au 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Microsoft and Google pour more electricity into AI than 100+ countries use" might have gotten a bit closer to the actuall point, if it's actually true

From what I can tell, the article is talking about total electrical use, not just AI.

Also probably ignoring the fact that some of their data centers have practically the entire roof covered in solar panels, Microsoft is investing in nuclear energy, etc.

[–] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 2 points 4 months ago

That is a big probably.