AI experts return from China stunned: The U.S. grid is so weak, the race may already be over

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• anyhow2503@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  It’s incredibly surprising that neglecting infrastructure investments for a mere few decades would have such an effect.

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  • truthfultemporarily@feddit.org ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Let’s be fair: no one ever warned that this could happen.

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    • p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨53⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      No one ever warned us that our energy needs have been climbing steadily for decades, and we need to stop being afraid of nuclear power? Really?

      What rock have you been hide in?

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• peoplebeproblems@midwest.social ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  The race to what?

  THE RACE TO WHAT MOTHERFUCKERS?

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  • nullpotential@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    the mostest money haver

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  • nothingcorporate@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    The thinking goes ‘if we don’t build Skynet first, then China will, so it’s better we be in charge of the Terminators…’

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    • Formfiller@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      We’re not in charge of shit. We’re the bullet blockers for the evil villains like thiel

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    • No1@aussie.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      There’s a school of thought that the first to get AGI/superintelligence can never be caught.

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• roofuskit@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Articles like this are being pushed by AI CEOs and investors to force the US public to pay for grid upgrades to support their profit making. Socialize costs, privatize profits.

  If, like most Americans, you’ve noticed an increase in your electric rates in the last year it is in no small part due to the increased demand put on the system by AI data centers. You’re already paying more to prop this shit up because they’re chasing gains with no regard to efficiency.

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  • FragrantGarden@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    All while being the same asswipes gobbling up such an obscene amount of gdp that the public can’t possibly pay it.

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  • BakerBagel@midwest.social ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    To be fair though, pur grid is absolutely ass and held together by electrical tape and broken dreams. Because it turns out apending the 40 years gutting the public sector of everything useful and not doing proper maintainence left the US unable to adapt. I apend a lot of time in Lakewood Ohio, a trendy and high density suburb of Cleveland, and they have had weekly blackouts all year because First Energy (of corruption infamy) has refused to do the necessary upkeep.

    Privatizing our utilities was a mistake

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  • humanspiral@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Articles like this are being pushed by AI CEOs and investors to force the US public to pay for grid upgrades to support their profit making. Socialize costs, privatize profits.

    Tone of article is more about the hopeless situation for US. It correctly highlights China’s humanist economics of abundance. The US, as the most corrupt country in the world, not only makes policy for insider trader benefits, but is also committed to climate terrorist interests, and climate terrorist only energy expansion.

    In China, renewables are framed as a cornerstone of the economy because they make sense economically and strategically, not because they carry moral weight.

    Even under Biden, war on Russia was designed to boost climate terrorism energy and capture of EU markets, including blatant sabotage of Nordstream, despite moral gesticulations supporting renewables.

    To your point, every media guest, will tell us that it is a national security priority as great as nuclear weapons dominance to support the achievement of Skynet even if all electricity consumers other than trillionaire tech companies face triple electricity costs. If we are not made miserable through absolute pillage for oligarchs, then China will win, is the propaganda manipulation.

    In truth, and best way to understand article, is that if you prioritize AI dominance over climate terrorism, then cheap Chinese energy (solar) and batteries is the path to quickly develop AI datacenters. Climate terrorism and consumer extortion profits is the greater priority of US policy, which infact dooms the US to lose at its Skynet utopia objective.

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• falcunculus@jlai.lu ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  “This is a stark contrast to the U.S., where AI growth is increasingly tied to debates over data center power consumption and grid limitations”

  Won’t anyone rid us off this troublesome democracy, so that tech companies may grow in peace ?

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  • NoForwardslashS@sopuli.xyz ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Won’t someone think of the tech bros?

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  • Grimy@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    You don’t need to change your political system to have sound energy policies.

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    • roofuskit@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Well, yes, we 100% do. But the above about shedding democracy was a joke. America needs to majorly reform our system. First and foremost by ending first past the post and the stranglehold of the two party system it enables.

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• thatradomguy@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  A bad joke I recall from middle school was “there’s always an Asian smarter than you” but I think there was something telling about kids thinking that. Clearly, there is some noticeable difference at the very least when comparing to the US. The US takes pride in mediocre scores while maintaining a very broken education system. I guess in that regard, perhaps their average scoring is a miracle in of itself. That doesn’t mean the rest of the world can’t do better but neither does it mean there aren’t dumb people everywhere. Also not trying to justify the very immoral education culture other countries have (which can lead to self harm) but just saying, it’s maybe obvious to see gaps when looking at the US in particular.

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• baconmonsta@piefed.social ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  _

  Coal use isn’t cast as a sign of villainy, as it would be among some circles in the U.S. – it’s simply seen as outdated. This pragmatic framing, Fishman argued, allows policymakers to focus on efficiency and results rather than political battles.
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  There's truly something for western politicians to learn from this

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  • p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨50⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    I don’t think the GOP is racing to build coal plants. They just use coal as a political tool to win votes. And when they win, the idiots that think Republicans are going to save their coal jobs get what they deserved.

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  • breecher@sh.itjust.works ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Also: China’s construction of new coal-power plants ‘reached 10-year high’ in 2024

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    • baconmonsta@piefed.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Hmm that is alarming then. To be honest I didn't read the complete article, which you linked, but on first glance paints a very different picture.

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  • couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    That we should build more coal plants to ´win´ the AI race?

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• CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  China decided to end their dependence on foreign fossil fuels.

  The USA decided to double down on oil.

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  • breecher@sh.itjust.works ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    While China has invested enormously in renewable energy, they have also invested enormously in fossil fuels.

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    • spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yeah, they are ramping up energy production as a whole.

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  • IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    China decided to end their dependence on fossil fuels, and I decided to retire by age 45. Me and China are about equally close to achieving our goals.

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    • angrystego@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      They said “foreign” fossil fuels, not fossil fuels in general.

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    • CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      They do reach every five year plan they put in place, especially regarding energy where they’re even in advance. Wth are you talking about?

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• brucethemoose@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  This is all based on the assumption that AI will need exponential power.

  It will not.

  • AI is a bubble.

  • Even if it isn’t, fab capacity is limited.

  • The actual ‘AI’ market is racing to the bottom with smaller, task focused models.

  • A bunch of reproduced papers (like bitnet) that reduce power exponentially are just waiting for someone to try a larger test.

  • Alltogether… inference moves to smartphones and PCs.

  This is just the finance crowd parroting Altman. Not that the US doesnt need a better energy grid like China, but the justification is built on lies that just aren’t going to happen.

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  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    While AI (as it is currently done) is a bubble,

    the article is still rather interesting. It discusses that China’s grid is superior because it has state backing, instead of being privately owned (and therefore short-sighted). Which is true, and America has a lesson to learn from that, if it wants to have a part of the future.

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  • paraphrand@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    But! Zuck said they recently saw AI able to work on tasks that involve improving the software that manages AI! He said that means we are not far from super intelligence!

    the extrapolation these guys make without new paradigm’s in mind is evidence of a bubble for me

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    • brucethemoose@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The irony is Zuck shuttered the absolute best asset they have: the Llama LLM team.

      Cuz, you know, he’s a fickle coward who would say and do anything to hide his insecurity.

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• zarathustra0@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  The lazy western capitalists being out-competed at their own game, you say?

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  • IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Yeah, it’s crazy what you can do when you don’t have to pay people, and you can instantly stomp out all dissent.

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    • djsaskdja@reddthat.com ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Wait, I’m confused. Are you talking about China or the US here?

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    • zarathustra0@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I’m not suggesting that China is some utopia - quite the opposite in a number of respects. But what I am arguing is that privileged classes and groups in the west have captured control of the wider narrative and tipped the scales to their benefit; we’ve ended up with financialised economies focusing on rent extraction which are stagnant and unable to support true innovation.

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    • ushmel@piefed.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Crazy we have that too and we're still losing

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  • paraphrand@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Image

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• ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Who’d have thought that not letting your infrastructure rot would put one in a better position to do infrastructure stuff? Not us, because planning ahead is for poors and commies

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• LENINSGHOSTFACEKILLA@hexbear.net ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  So they want us to foot the bill to upgrade our power grid, and then grind it to a fucking hault again in an effort to create better anime big-tiddy goth gf avatars and shitty electro music?

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• RandAlThor@lemmy.ca ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  China has been ramping up building of coal power plants, many of which are operating at 50% capacity: lemmy.ca/post/49779092

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  • humanspiral@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    coal and NG electricity production declined in 2024. Building new coal plants doesn’t mean using them. Another 1tw of solar this year will reduce this further.

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    • RandAlThor@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      They are building capacity for the long term. Power generation and transmission capacity can’t be built over night.

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• ulu_mulu@lemmy.zip ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I think Trump open war against them helps, I mean, if you cut them our of critical supply, you push them to develop their own, they’re not stupid.

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• Marthirial@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  No worries. AI will figure out a way out of our energy mess by consuming Immense amounts of ener… WAIT…

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• BrokenGlepnir@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  And what kind of “grand slam” are we talking about? I know whatever it is they want it real bad, but to you’re average human being: is filing out tps reports with 90 percent accuracy really that important?

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