[gruez]

Isn't almost all of the datacenter build out for inference, rather than training? If so, what's the issue? If the electricity demand is coming from actual use, then why are people getting mad at datacenters or AI companies, rather than the actual people driving the demand? It's like getting mad at Amazon for how much they increased fuel prices, which they surely did, given all the fuel that their trucks/planes burn. Or getting mad at some global food conglomerate for making açaí berries[1] more expensive, but there's a global craze for them and the conglomerate is just catering to that demand.

[1] or whatever other "superfood" that explodes in popularity

[derektank]

The electricity supply is probably a lot less elastic than the gas and oil supply at this point. Also, there’s no global price of electricity like there (more or less) is for oil. Residents suffer a localized cost when a large electricity consumer moves in, and they benefit when they can force the consumer to move to another locality. Definitely NIMBYism, but the reaction is understandable.

It’s really just a question of saliency.

[hereme888]

Bruh.... I've climbed those acai trees with locals in Brazil, and when I saw the thickness and richness of real, purely ground acai, and the dilute garbage (cough sambazon cough) they sell in the US, and mentioned how much it costs in the US.... the guy froze and thought he misheard me. A local friend turned and warned me "don't tell them that, because it'll create frustration and anger he can't do anything about."

They just run to the local store after manually grinding it in their machines, and get peanuts for a bag that would sell for >$100 in the US.

[JuniperMesos]

Most raw materials cost less than the final consumer-facing good made from those raw materials, because of all the costs that go into turning the raw materials into a useful product to sell to customers - why should ground acai be any different? If those people climbing acai trees in Brazil know what acai costs in the US or know that the product they have is better quality than what gets exported to the US, they can in principle use this information to create a better or cheaper acai export business than the people they're currently selling their ground acai to and undercut them.

[hereme888]

I think you vastly misunderstood the story. These people sold a finished, packaged product to local markets. You can't excuse paying them <$2 for a $100 worth of sambazon just because you switched labels and shipped/distributed to US markets.

[jamescrowley]

Or getting mad at oil & gas companies? They’re only supplying the fossil drugs we demand. And using their billions in profits to lobby at every level of government and society to ensure they can continue despite the scientific evidence of harm that they’ve known since the 70s? Not at all like that.

https://www.investigate-europe.eu/posts/big-tech-data-centre...

https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-choose-ai-climate-goa...