[jacquesm]

It is the opposite of refining energy. Electrical energy is steak, what leaves the datacenter is heat, the lowest form of energy that we might still have a use for in that concentration (but most likely we are just dumping it in the atmosphere).

Refining is taking a lower quality energy source and turning it into a higher quality one.

What you could argue is that it adds value to bits. But the bits themselves, their state is what matters, not the energy that transports them.

[elbasti]

I think you're pushing the metaphor a bit far, but the parallel was to something like ore.

A power plant "mines" electron, which the data center then refines into words. or whatever. The point is that energy is the raw material that flows into data centers.

[fuzzfactor]

Maybe more like converting energy to data, as a more specific type of refinement.

[phkahler]

Using energy to decrease the entropy of data. Or to organize and structure data.

[fuzzfactor]

I like that. Take random wild electrons and put them neatly into rows & columns where they can sit a spell.

[LaGrange]

This is OpenAI, they are not decreasing the entropy. This is refining coal into waste heat and CO2.