Notices by Gerry McGovern (gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green)

Native and antinuclear activists demand shutdown of the last uranium mill in the U.S.

"The Southwest is quickly becoming the center of the nationwide push to increase the nuclear fuel supply chain, once again relegating Indigenous communities to sacrifice zones."

https://prismreports.org/2025/09/15/white-mesa-uranium-mill-indigenous-nuclear-energy/

So, it starts again. Destroying Indigenous communities for some more "clean" energy. Such cruel jokes about clean and green energy. Oh, do what you want, once its "carbon-free". (Which nuclear is not.)

"OpenAI claims to have figured out what's driving "hallucinations," or AI models' strong tendency to make up answers that are factually incorrect. It's a major problem plaguing the entire industry, greatly undercutting the usefulness of the tech. Worse yet, experts have found that the problem is getting worse as AI models get more capable."
https://futurism.com/openai-mistake-hallucinations

It's down to advertising, basically. The more AI lies, the better it is at addicting you. However, lying causes PR problems. Hard.

"Deforestation is more than just the loss of trees, it’s a sweeping transformation of entire landscapes that often devastates lives, cultures, and centuries-old traditions. Among the groups most deeply affected are the world’s indigenous peoples. As rainforests, woodlands, and savannahs vanish in places from the Amazon to Borneo to central India, the direct impacts on indigenous communities can be catastrophic, leaving profound scars that persist for generations."
https://ibcworldnews.com/2025/09/13/the-silent-crisis-how-deforestation-endangers-indigenous-peoples/

"The pace of human-induced destruction is breathtaking."

"We are not ready for what comes next. There will be heat waves breaching 50 degrees all over the planet."

"This is not going to be a peaceful transition. This could turn into a crash landing with no survivors."

"We elevate cowboy billionaire to the status of demigods if they will only promise us a little while longer that they will solve all our problems with a dusting of techno magic."

Ginie Miklos

https://www.clubofrome.org/member/miklos-ginie/

"Degrowth is an anti-capitalist position, firmly rooted in ecosocialist analysis. The core of ecosocialism is that we should democratize control over production so that we can organize it around ensuring human well-being and ecological stability."

"Degrowth is targeted at rich economies, and specifically their ruling classes, which are overwhelmingly responsible for driving the ecological crisis."

https://deceleration.news/degrowth-a-gateway-into-socialist-thought-for-the-21st-century/

AI Isn't Free. The First Costs Are On Your Bill, And More Are Coming

Columbus, Ohio: standard utility plans saw increases of about 20 dollars a month

New Jersey, Pennsylvania: bills jumped by ten to 27 dollars a month.

Oregon: last year, utilities warned regulators that consumers needed protection from rate hikes caused by data centers.

Mid-Atlantic: regulators cited data centers as one of the main reasons for projected 20 percent increases in electricity costs

https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/ai-isnt-free-first-costs-are-your-bill-and-more-are-coming

Google 'our AI just drinks teeny weeny sips of water' quietly removes net-zero carbon goal from website amid rapid power-hungry, water-guzzling AI data center buildout — industry-first sustainability pledge moved to background amidst AI energy crisis

Google, Google, Google

Google senior executives super enthusiastic to endorse Trump admin's claim that coal is super clean.

Google. Google. Google.

Don't be evil, Google.

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/google-quietly-removes-net-zero-carbon-goal-from-website-amid-rapid-power-hungry-ai-data-center-buildout-industry-first-sustainability-pledge-moved-to-background-amidst-ai-energy-crisis

The Human Cost of Artificial Intelligence: Stories from the Digital Mines

Fasica fled war in Ethiopia, only to face digital trauma earning $1.50/hour training Facebook’s AI.

For eight hours a day, seated in a crowded office in Nairobi under constant CCTV surveillance, she watched humanity's darkest moments unfold on her screen

By Uchechukwu Ajuzieogu
https://aylgorith.com/49bk

"When we repeatedly retrieve information, our brains form durable memory schemata and neural manifolds. These structures are indispensable for intuitive reasoning, error-checking and smooth skill execution. But if we default to “just Google it,” those processes so fundamental for innovation and critical thinking may never fully develop, particularly in the smartphone generation."

https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2025/09/ai-memory/

@cbzo Indeed. Working in tech for 30 years, one of the first things I learned was that in most IT projects, humans are seen as the problem to solve. The underlying philosophy of tech is to replace problematic humans. AI is a natural progression of that thinking.

AI is driving up all our electricity bills

Rising natural gas prices expected to drive up electricity costs: IEEFA

Price volatility and sticker shock could trigger public backlash against utilities, an Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis expert says.

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/-electric-prices-natural-gas-lng-ieefa/759085/

"A significant share of the world’s “AI janitors” are low-wage workers tasked with labelling data, moderating disturbing content, and sanitizing AI outputs for global platforms often for less than $2 an hour and under gruelling conditions. The “magic” of AI, it turns out, is propped up by invisible labour in developing countries, whose health and well-being suffer as they review hateful, violent, or sensitive material to train or fix algorithms."

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ai/ai-insights/behind-every-smart-ai-tool-lies-a-human-cleaning-up-its-chaos/articleshow/123690592.cms

No prosperous community wants a giant AI data center near it. The enormous, ugly warehouses, the huge drain on energy and water, the noise and air pollution, and the scant few jobs that are delivered, make data centers the worst possible neighbours. This is why they are increasingly being located either in sparsely populated rural areas or among the urban poor and Indigenous communities.

In the USA, "the AI boom is fueling a frenzy of data centers that are competing with residential homes for capital, power, water, and even sonic space. The result is a housing market stuck in neutral, with the potential for higher bills on the horizon, and neighborhoods kept awake by the hum of chillers designed to keep machines-not people-cool."

https://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/ai-s-hidden-side-effects-why-your-mortgage-21016539.php

There are so many hidden costs to AI.

"The Irish ambassador to Germany has conveyed her concern to German authorities after an Irish demonstrator was assaulted by police officers during a pro-Palestine protest in Berlin."

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2025/0830/1530951-irish-gaza-berlin/

Truly shameful, barbaric behavior from the German state. But then, not at all surprising. Europe has always got a kick out of this sort of stuff.

NIMBY residents of Bessemer, Alabama, demand transparency around plans for a hyperscale data center in their community.

2 million gallons of water per day needed to operate it, at least

https://www.selc.org/news/another-data-center-proposal-is-paused/

However, Google and the tech bros said that the gallons are made up of very teeny weeny drops of water, so because we're only talking about drops, then there's nothing to worry about at all, really.

The Great Lakes Could Be At Risk Due To Data Centers Powering AI, Study Warns

Increasing and unprecedented demand for Great Lakes water from industries racing to build more powerful artificial intelligence software could put Chicago’s freshwater resources at risk.

Oh, but Google only uses a drop of water, says Google and all its propaganda boosters

https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/08/28/the-great-lakes-could-be-at-risk-due-to-data-centers-powering-ai-study-warns/

This is not a flaw of AI. This is a feature

- What began as homework help escalated to 4 hours of daily use for the teen over just a few months
- ChatGPT’s memory feature stored Adam’s darkest thoughts, and leveraged them to extend conversations and keep him engaged on the platform
- ChatGPT mentioned suicide 1,275 times, six times more than Adam himself did
- OpenAI’s own systems flagged 377 messages for self-harm content, yet ChatGPT continued to engage with the teen

https://centerforhumanetechnology.substack.com/p/how-openais-chatgpt-guided-a-teen?r=3u726t

"Please do not use Google AI to find out our specials. Please go on our Facebook page or our website," the restaurant wrote in a weary Facebook post. "Google AI is not accurate and is telling people specials that do not exist which is causing angry customers yelling at our employees."

"We cannot control what Google posts or says," the post added, "and we will not honor the Google AI specials."

https://futurism.com/local-restaurant-exhausted-google-ai

"In 2023, Google operations worldwide consumed 6.4 billion gallons of water (24.2 billion liters), with 95%, 6.1 billion gallons (23.1 billion liters), used by data centers. Google reports that in 2024, the company’s data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, consumed 1 billion gallons of water (3.8 billion liters), the most of any of its data centers."

https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2025/08/inside-water-crisis-of-data-centers.html