[ncruces]

The prototype phase meant data centers are now measured in MW instead of TFLOPS.

At a time where we were desperate to reduce emissions, data centers now consume around 20% of the energy consumed by the entire aviation sector, with consumption is rising at 15% YoY.

Never mind the water required to cool them, or the energy and resources required to build them, the capital allocation, and the opportunity cost of not allocating all of that to something else.

And this is, your words, the prototype phase.

[neoromantique]

Emissions and Energy consumed do not necessarily have to be linked up.

We have plenty of ways to make clean energy, it is only matter of incentives.

As long as burning coal is simply cheaper, business will burn coal.

[soulofmischief]

The computing power in a crappy cheap modern phone used to fill up a warehouse and cost a ton of energy, relatively. Moore's law might not remain steadfast, but if history is any indication, we'll find a way to make the technology more efficient.

So, yes, prototypes often use more energy than the final product. That doesn't mean we shouldn't sustainable build datacenters, but that's conflating issues.