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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 1h

Tomorrow: The AI Bubble is built on impossible promises. GPUs die in 5 years, nobody has built a 1GW data center, and they have the power to do so. Stargate Abilene won't have enough power before 2028.

Here's a link for $10 off premium.

edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo...

Everybody is very casual with how they talk about Sam Altman’s theoretical promises of trillions of dollars of data center infrastructure, and I'm not sure anybody realizes how difficult even the very basics of this plan will be.
Nevertheless, everybody is happily publishing stories about how “Stargate Abilene Texas - OpenAI’s massive data center with Oracle - is open,” by which they mean two buildings, and I’m not even confident both of them are providing compute to OpenAI yet. There are six more of them that need to get built for this thing to start rocking at 1.2GW - even though it’s only 1.1GW according to my sources in Abilene.
But, hey, sorry - one minute - while we’re on that subject, did anybody visiting Abilene in the last week or so ever ask whether they’ll have enough power there?
Don’t worry, you don’t need to look - I’m sure you were just about to, and had simply been busy! - but I did the hard work for you and read up on it, and it turns out that Stargate Abilene only has 200 megawatts of power - a 200 megawatt substation that, according to my sources, has only been built within the last couple of months, with 350 Megawatt of gas turbine generators that connect to a natural gas power plant that might get built by the end of the year in the event that one of the multiple construction firms involved . Said turbine is extremely expensive, featuring volatile pricing (for context, volatility fell in Q2 2025…to 69% annualized, meaning that if you had these prices across the entirety of a year you’d see swings of 69% up or down) and even more volatile environmental consequences, and is, while permitted for it (this will download the PDF of the permit), impractical and expensive to use long-term.
Analyst James van Geelen, founder of Citrini Research recently said on Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast that these are “not the really good natural gas turbines” because the really good ones would take seven years to deliver due to a natural gas turbine shortage.
But th…

$Stargate Abilene does not have sufficient power to run at even half of its supposed IT load of 1.2GW, and at its present capacity - assuming that the gas turbines function at full power - can only hope to run 370MW to 460MW of IT load. I’ve seen article after article about the gas turbines and their use of fracked gas - a disgusting and wasteful act typical of OpenAI - but nobody appears to have asked “how much power does a 1.2GW data center require?” and then chased it with “how much power does Stargate Abilene have?” The answer is not enough, and the significance of said “not enough” is remarkable. Today, I’m going to tell you, at length, how impossible the future of generative AI is. Gigawatt data centers are a ridiculous pipe dream, one that runs face-first into the walls of reality. The world’s governments and media have been far too cavalier with the term “gigawatt,” casually breezing by the fact that Altman’s plans require 17 or more nuclear reactors’ worth of power, as if building power is quick and easy and cheap and just happens. I believe that many of you think that this is an issue of permitting - of simply throwing enough money at the problem - when we are in the midst of a shortage in the electrical grade steel and transformers required to expand America (and the world’s) power grid. I realize it’s easy to get blinded by the constant drumbeat of “gargoyle-like tycoon cabal builds 1 gigawatt data center” and feel that they will simply overwhelm the problem with money, but no, I’m afraid that isn’t the case at all, and all of this is so silly, so ridiculous, so cartoonishly bad that it threatens even the seemingly-infinite wealth of Elon Musk, with xAI burning over a billion dollars a month and planning to spend tens of billions of dollars building the Colossus 2 data center, dragging two billion dollars from SpaceX in his desperate quest to burn as much money as possible for no reason. This is the age of hubris - a time in which we are going to watc…$

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 38m

“Bubbles are useful, the authors say, because they induce people to take more risk.”

www.reuters.com/commentary/b...

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 3h

thenarwhal.ca/ai-data-cent...

What will the AI data centre boom mean for Canada? | The Narwhal

Sprawling AI data centres, like Kevin O’Leary’s plans for Wonder Valley in Alberta, are hungry for land, water and power

thenarwhal.ca

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 7h

“Without the data center boom, we’d probably be in a recession...” paulkrugman.substack.com/p/why-arent-...

Why Aren’t We Partying Like It’s 1999?

Fear, not hope, permeates today’s technology hype

paulkrugman.substack.com

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 9h

www.cnn.com/2025/10/08/b...

As AI gets more life-like, a new Luddite movement is taking root | CNN Business

At my local coffee shop a couple of weeks ago, I overheard one 20-something woman say to another: Could I ask, what kind of phone do you have?

www.cnn.com

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 9h

futurism.com/artificial-i...

New Yorkers Are Defacing This AI Startup's Million-Dollar Ad Campaign

An AI startup called friend has plastered the New York City subway system in advertisements -- and furious riders are vandalizing them.

futurism.com

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 9h

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

Vandals deface ads for AI necklaces that listen to all your conversations

Critics attacked subway ads to defend human friends and broadly criticize AI.

arstechnica.com

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 10h

ha ha thank you!!

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 11h

The digital-urban frontier in China: Data centres, extraction and the state in peripheral places
Yawei Zhao

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 11h

Would love to hear this!

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 1d

“The more ways that a student reports that their school uses AI, the more likely they are to report things like 'I know someone who considers AI to be a friend,' 'I know someone who considers AI to be a romantic partner.'"

1 in 5 high schoolers has had a romantic AI relationship, or knows someone who has

A national survey of students, teachers and parents shines a light on how the AI revolution is playing out in schools – including when it comes to bullying and a community's trust in schools.

www.npr.org

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Maria Antoniak @mariaa.bsky.social · 11h

Another Emily Bender quote: "We don't need to construct thought experiments to think of conditions to which no human should be subject to."

#COLM2025

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 12h

Thank you!

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 1d

"the largest tech companies in the world are purchasing this infrastructure"...we know the game and no one wants your planet-burning war-industry infrastructure, so you can produce more AI slop. Canada please stop wasting tax dollars on Cohere/Coreweave: betakit.com/cohere-secur...

Cohere secures federal backing to build multibillion-dollar Canadian AI data centre

This marks the first investment through the new Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy.

betakit.com

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 1d

““There are no experts in labour and employment issues (which are top of mind for many Canadians these days), nor is there representation from those with expertise in the environmental issues we already know are raised by AI innovation,” she wrote.“

www.thestar.com/politics/fed...

Experts say Ottawa’s new AI task force is skewed towards industry

OTTAWA - The Liberal government has given its new AI "task force" until the end of the month to fast-track changes to the national artificial intelligence strategy — a plan

www.thestar.com

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

ddɐ˙ʎʞsʞɔɐlq˙uǝʌs@ @sven.blacksky.app · 22h

A piece I came upon recently that you may be interested with

An AI Addendum

Last month, I chose to strip away all the hubris around AI and ask one simple question, one that oddly no one had really bothered to ask; how much revenue is needed to justify the current level of cap...

pracap.com

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 1d

“Some on Wall Street are concerned that these deals — and a slew of others across Big Tech — are too circular, meaning money is passed around back and forth from one company to another.”

www.cnbc.com/2025/10/08/c...

CoreWeave CEO pushes back against circular investment concerns

CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator discussed his company's deals with a number of artificial intelligence giants in a Wednesday interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer.

www.cnbc.com

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 1d

The real economy is already in a deep recession. The fake AI economy is a smokescreen. And now I'm afraid that the government will throw any amount of money at it to keep it from popping.

The AI bubble is the only thing keeping the US economy together, Deutsche Bank warns

According to a research note recently sent to clients by Deutsche Bank, the AI boom is currently helping the US economy avoid a recession but it cannot...

www.techspot.com

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

$fractalecho.bsky.social$

Rua M. Williams @fractalecho.bsky.social · 1d

Disabling Intelligences: Legacies of Eugenics and How We are Wrong about AI is now available in physical form! link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Cover of Disabling Intelligences, a dark pink book with orange vines.

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

David @daverino.bsky.social · 1d

A classic example of what @anna-orridge.bsky.social refers to as a “lolsob” moment.

“A major Australian university used artificial intelligence technology to accuse about 6,000 students of academic misconduct last year…many of the students had done nothing wrong”
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

University caught out using AI to wrongly accuse students of cheating with AI

An Australian university has accused thousands of its students of cheating with artificial intelligence. The problem? Many have done nothing wrong.

www.abc.net.au

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 1d

““There are no experts in labour and employment issues (which are top of mind for many Canadians these days), nor is there representation from those with expertise in the environmental issues we already know are raised by AI innovation,” she wrote.“

www.thestar.com/politics/fed...

Experts say Ottawa’s new AI task force is skewed towards industry

OTTAWA - The Liberal government has given its new AI "task force" until the end of the month to fast-track changes to the national artificial intelligence strategy — a plan

www.thestar.com

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 3d

Ongoing CFP:

Heliotrope is seeking submissions on a rolling basis. This a space for short think-&-feel pieces... www.heliotropejournal.net/editors-notes

Editors' notes — HELIOTROPE

www.heliotropejournal.net

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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 1d

www.eventbrite.ca/e/future-net...

Future Networks Talks: Nick Couldry

Come join us for a keynote address by Nick Couldry titled ""The Space Of The World: How Can We Rebuild It?"

www.eventbrite.ca

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

NBC News @nbcnews.com · 1d

Behind on payments for her mobile home, Lynn White was out of options. With no money for a lawyer to appeal an eviction notice, she consulted ChatGPT.

“It was like having God up there responding to my questions,” White says.

These people ditched lawyers for ChatGPT in court

From pickleball disputes to eviction cases, litigants are using ChatGPT to fight their court battles — and they’re starting to win.

nbcnews.to

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Reposted by Mél Hogan / The Data Fix

Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 2d

They gave the physics prize to the dude who said that ChatGPT is the world's butterfly and GPT3 was a caterpillar.

The dude who told us in 2018 that radiologists should cease to go to school because the profession was gonna be out in 5 years. But 5 years later he just moved on to the next lie.

These Women Tried to Warn Us About AI

Rumman Chowdhury, Timnit Gebru, Safiya Noble, Seeta Peña Gangadharan, and Joy Buolamwini open up about their artificial intelligence fears

www.rollingstone.com

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