Notices by Félix Tréguer (felix@mamot.fr)

In the US, "the #DataCenter industry is booming all over, from Virginia to Texas to Oregon, and utilities across the country are responding by building new fossil fuel resources or delaying retirements, all at a time when scientists agree that cutting fossil fuel emissions is more urgent than ever."
https://www.route-fifty.com/digital-government/2025/02/georgia-was-about-retire-coal-plants-then-came-data-centers/402981/

At the #ActionAI summit, Macron announced a crazy amount of 109 billions of euros of investment in Data Centers in France. One more sign of a broader shift in the finance industry and the tech sector: hedge funds make direct investments in compute power, and trade it for equity in the firms they seek to invest in. https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/odd-lots/how-the-hedge-fund-magnetar-T3g_yDtec2E/

Although framed as a protection against AI surveillance, the #AIact is anything but: "Governments successfully lobby for freedom to surveil citizens in public spaces, target border areas with AI systems and exploit predictive policing algorithms, internal documents obtained by @investigate_eu reveal." https://www.investigate-europe.eu/posts/france-spearheads-member-state-campaign-dilute-european-artificial-intelligence-regulation

« A 21 heures, le président élu a posté l’image de cette monnaie virtuelle, qui le représente le poing levé avec les slogans « Fight, fight, fight », prononcé en juillet 2024 après sa tentative d’assassinat en Pennsylvanie. »
https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2025/01/19/en-plein-conflit-d-interets-trump-debute-son-mandat-en-vendant-des-cryptomonnaies-a-son-effigie_6505740_3210.html

Anthony Scaramucci, ancien directeur de la communication de la Maison Blanche de Trump : « La chose la plus dangereuse pour le pays concernant la monnaie Trump est ce qui va suivre : désormais, n’importe qui dans le monde peut pratiquement déposer de l’argent sur le compte bancaire du président des Etats-Unis en quelques clics. Toutes les faveurs – géopolitiques, commerciales ou personnelles – sont désormais en vente, au grand jour ».

Tout va bien « au pays de la liberté d'expression ». 4 mois de sursis pour avoir écrit « la police » sous le logo Nike. https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/160125/un-tee-shirt-nike-la-police-vaut-quatre-mois-avec-sursis-un-antifa

"It's not AI, it's state-of-the-art exploitation". After two years spent diversifying its fields of action, @LaQuadrature is now tackling a new front: the fight against the onslaught of artificial intelligence in all areas of society. https://www.laquadrature.net/en/2024/12/04/its-not-ai-its-state-of-the-art-exploitation/

Un article qui offre un bon résumé de cette super ballade conférencée de samedi dernier à #Marseille, dans le cadre du festival « Le nuage était sous nos pieds » organisé contre les #DataCenters et leurs impacts politiques, sociaux, environnementaux. Un week-end riche en rencontres, avec notamment @tunubesecamirio @parismarx @loupcellard. Feat. Le collectif des Gammares @LaQuadrature @technopolice.
https://marsactu.fr/de-la-calade-a-la-villette-une-balade-pour-comprendre-ce-qui-se-joue-dans-les-data-centers

@fanta aaargh! Falta una S!

Though I feel like it could be that AI is there to stay, e.g. if AI providers like Microsoft manage to cut down cost and keep tools like ChatGPT cheap enough for them to find customers, ensuring their business sustainability (despite their environmental unsustainably)...

Also, regarding "what might be left behind and how could it be put to good use": what will be left are megatons of storage space and huge computation power we do not need in the first place, for which future forms of digital capitalism will probably --unfortunately-- find use for, sustaining the ongoing ecological devastation. So the sooner we burst that bubble (and capitalism), the better. And as for a "good" alternative usage of those resources, dunno. Not sure there's one to be found...

"ll the big, exciting uses for AI are either low-dollar (helping kids cheat on their homework, generating stock art for bottom-feeding publications) or high-stakes and fault-intolerant (self-driving cars, radiology, hiring, etc.). Every bubble pops eventually. When this one goes, what will be left behind?" asks @pluralistic in this interesting take on the AI bubble. https://locusmag.com/2023/12/commentary-cory-doctorow-what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/