Earlier this month, executives from some of the most influential Big Tech companies met with the Biden administration To discuss strategies to deal with the impending crisis caused by energy-intensive training of AI.
Government officials, including Chief of Staff to the President Jeff Zients, National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard, National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi, and John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy, and numerous others, including Alphabet's President Ruth We met with technology industry leaders. Porat, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
This is not the first time the Biden administration has partnered with big business to tackle energy issues while enacting policies that undermine its own efforts to strengthen America's industrial and energy base.
Happily for OpenAI, the Biden administration announced plans to invest in data center infrastructure projects following the discussions. On the other hand, OpenAI said CNBC, the company is 'grateful'[s] white house [for] We are holding this conference to recognize infrastructure priorities that will create jobs, ensure the benefits of AI are widespread, and ensure that the United States remains at the forefront of AI innovation. be. ”
Additionally, the Biden administration will launch a permitting council to increase technical assistance to federal, state, and local governments dealing with data center permitting, and expand AI data center engagement financing, grants, and tax credits. The team announced the launch of the “'' program. We are taking steps to address data center energy issues, including sharing resources with data center developers regarding the reuse of closed coal sites.
Data centers and fossil fuels
Like many other technology industries, AI training relies heavily on data centers that provide powerful servers and storage capacity for all kinds of ventures. Most of these data centers utilize fossil fuels to provide their services. Fossil fuels are the energy that many globalists and self-proclaimed progressives claim will destroy the world.
Demand on these data centers continues to increase. According to research from Goldman Sachs, data center power demand will increase by 160% by 2030. international energy agency“Electricity consumption by data centers, artificial intelligence (AI), and the crypto sector could double by 2026.” Most worryingly, data centers consumed 460 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2022. , and that number could increase to more than 1,000 TWh by 2026, which is close to Japan's current electricity consumption.
That's because more companies are innovating in AI, and as AI becomes more complex, energy consumption increases. For example, OpenAI's ChatGPT-4 50 times Power required to train GPT-3. Additionally, AI-based programs consume much more energy than basic search engines. A simple ChatGPT prompt response takes nearly 10 times more power than a Google search. A ChatGPT prompt response requires 2.9 Watt-hours, while a Google search takes 0.3 Watt-hours.
It makes no sense to rely on green energy to power these data centers, but the Biden administration believes otherwise.
nepotism
The Biden administration is currently facing a serious problem. But is the solution to partnering with big tech to shape AI policy? This move comes as big tech companies want to leverage big government to shift public policy in their favor. Some people call them evil. “National approval.”
What could go wrong?
No one would complain if industry and government simply formed public-private partnerships to deal with the looming energy crisis. But the problem lies in the proposals that Big Tech and the Biden administration want to implement. Even though lawmakers and politicians seem to understand the urgency of AI's inexhaustible energy needs, they continue to push leftist regulations and non-solutions that hinder efforts to strengthen America's energy sector.
Big Tech likes this kind of regulation. It does nothing but increase inefficiency for small and medium-sized enterprises, in addition to other regulations that keep “small technologies” out of the market while leveraging their own institutional power and capital to expand their market share. We support woke regulations that don't actually do anything.
In addition to the aforementioned efforts, the Biden administration is committed to “achieving net-zero carbon emissions; [produce] clean energy. ” Even though data centers rely on cheap fossil fuels, the left is trying to find ways to simply access cheap, reliable energy and replace expensive, inefficient renewables that make the problem worse. By using green energy sources, it claims to be doing the green energy lobby a favor.
it's a pattern
This is not the first time the Biden administration has partnered with big business to tackle energy issues while enacting policies that undermine its own efforts to strengthen America's industrial and energy base.
In 2022, a bipartisan coalition of Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing. President Joe Biden also supported and signed it. The bill was a good start, but Intel's recent struggles and shortages, as well as new uncertainty surrounding the impact of the much-touted new TSMC manufacturing facility in Arizona, have made this effort to ramp up chip manufacturing much less likely. is overshadowed by the deficiencies of These flaws include woke language, DEI regulations, and most importantly, climate change and green energy, even though chip manufacturing relies heavily on cheap, reliable, and efficient fossil fuels. Includes efforts to
Additionally, after announcing that billions of taxpayer dollars would be spent “strengthening resilience to climate change,” the Biden-Harris administration issued the following statement: press release It details an expensive and advanced climate change plan to reach net-zero carbon emissions.
“The path to net zero emissions requires deploying a wide range of currently available and cost-effective emissions reduction options, such as new wind and solar capacity expansion. “It will also require rapid expansion of technologies and methods to remove carbon from the atmosphere and balance remaining emissions, as well as explore additional mitigation and transformative adaptation options,” the administration asserted.
As the name of the crisis suggests, the data center energy crisis will only be solved by access to more reliable energy, not by colluding with Big Tech to expand their institutional influence and push a green agenda. will be done.
