Unlimited Power

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Hello readers,

Welcome to another edition of This Week in the Future! Data centers are the lifeblood of generative AI, but they require massive investments in both capital and energy. We have a few stories about unchecked power (literally) being surrendered to generative AI by the bullish management class of Big Tech. Let’s dive in!

Unlimited Power

Generative AI depends on massive data centers, and these data centers need massive amounts of power to operate and millions of gallons of water per day for cooling. At least, that’s what Elon Musk’s supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee needs. According to a new report, Musk’s data center is not only an environmental hazard to the surrounding area, but was rushed into existence without the knowledge of city officials, with utility providers having to sign NDAs, and is powered by unpermitted methane gas generators. In a case of tragic confusion, opponents to the data center appear to still be optimistic about AI generally, when they should instead be pointing out that this entire mess is in service of a chatbot, Musk’s shrine to internet cringe.

There are more legitimate data center projects in the works. Microsoft and BlackRock (one of the most dubious companies ever) are raising $100 billion dollars to invest in AI data centers. Groq (not Grok) and Aramco Digital also announced plans to build the largest AI inference data center in Saudi Arabia. However, more data centers means more emissions, and it doesn’t help that data center emissions might be 662% higher than Big Tech claims. In another case of tragic confusion, the United Nations is urging the private sector to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by using generative AI, one of the least sustainable technologies ever.

Lastly, OpenAI has gotten a touch defensive lately. After the arguably disappointing and rushed launch of o1, users have tried to get the model to expose its raw chain of thought “reasoning” and have consequently been threatened with being banned. Despite all of o1’s flaws, Sam Altman has declared that Level 2 of 5 (“Reasoners”) on the road to AGI has been achieved. Spoilers: no such thing has been achieved. However, this is the least of OpenAI’s problems, as they are now having to consider upending their convoluted corporate structure to make it easier to raise money.

🔥 Rapid Fire

• OpenAI updates safety and security practices with new committee

• Microsoft launches Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2 for enterprises

• 1X introduces 1X World Model, a virtual simulator for humanoid robots

• Alibaba introduces Qwen2.5 with specialized coding and math models

• Intel and AWS expand strategic collaboration wtih custom AI chips

• Slack adds Agentforce, third-party models, and new Slack AI features

• Salesforce and NVIDIA collaborate to advance AI agents and avatars

• NVIDIA launches AI Aerial to optimize wireless networks with AI-RAN

• Google introduces bioacoustics model for recognizing whale sounds

• Google announces $25M in AI funding for students and educators

• White House to host international AI safety meeting in SF after election

• LinkedIn quietly trains AI models on personal user data with opt-out option

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📖 What We’re Reading

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💻️ AI Tools and Platforms

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