Artificial Intelligence

[bobpbx]

I wonder if it can cool the systems using salt water? Highly corrosive but only costs the power to pump it. Let me ask:

I was suprised at this part of the answer: "Microsoft's experimental Project Natick submerged an entire data center pod in the ocean, using a direct seawater cooling approach to demonstrate the potential for underwater facilities."

Google Search

 

[Boyd]

I actually heard about that before. Hey - that would be the perfect companion for this, as proposed to power New City and the Pinelands supersonic jetport. Maybe it's finally time to build it after all these years? The AI folks are very big on nuclear power.

 

[manumuskin]

AI admits o lying

 

[bobpbx]

I actually heard about that before. Hey - that would be the perfect companion for this, as proposed to power New City and the Pinelands supersonic jetport. Maybe it's finally time to build it after all these years? The AI folks are very big on nuclear power.

View attachment 25509

That would be a total disaster if it had a meltdown

Google Search

 

[Boyd]

I was just reading through that "New City" proposal again (see link in my post above). Reminds me of the science fiction classic "Things to Come" from the 1930's and not 1970's. Anyway, not to worry, the actual proposal doesn't really say the power plant would be offshore, just "East of the new city". And best of all - no smokestacks!

Maybe this all deserves another look? New City would be a perfect location for massive AI data centers, with convenient monorail access to the supersonic jet port for all the international data scientists who would regularly visit. And anyway, who needs all those pine trees? I'm sure the federal government could help out by rescinding the federal pinelands protections.

 

[bobpbx]

He had to be writing about Oyster Creek. Have to look at the time line, it was maybe the longest running nuclear plant in the country.

 

[Boyd]

I think it was. Wikipedia says Oyster Creek went online in 1969 and apparently the planning for New City was sometime in the early 1960's(?)

 

[bobpbx]

I drove by there a couple days ago. I'm sure there will be something else there that will revive it as a power center. At one point they were thinking of taking the wind farm power to there to distribute it. But LBI rich people smashed that idea.

 

[bobpbx]

I was in the Jones Road fire area this week, and I was stunned to see thousands of new plants germinate without the fire even touching the ground. I was surprised by that, so I asked the question. This reply is awesome in it's arrangement. Took less than 5 seconds.

Google Search

 

[Boyd]

OpenAI and Nvidia’s $100B AI plan will require power equal to 10 nuclear reactors

“This is a giant project,” Nvidia CEO said of new 10-gigawatt AI infrastructure deal.

arstechnica.com

"To put that power demand in perspective, 10 gigawatts equals the output of roughly 10 nuclear reactors, which typically output about 1 gigawatt per facility. Current data center energy consumption ranges from 10 megawatts to 1 gigawatt, with most large facilities consuming between 50 and 100 megawatts. OpenAI's planned infrastructure would dwarf existing installations, requiring as much electricity as multiple major cities."

 

[bobpbx]

OpenAI and Nvidia’s $100B AI plan will require power equal to 10 nuclear reactors

“This is a giant project,” Nvidia CEO said of new 10-gigawatt AI infrastructure deal.

arstechnica.com

"To put that power demand in perspective, 10 gigawatts equals the output of roughly 10 nuclear reactors, which typically output about 1 gigawatt per facility. Current data center energy consumption ranges from 10 megawatts to 1 gigawatt, with most large facilities consuming between 50 and 100 megawatts. OpenAI's planned infrastructure would dwarf existing installations, requiring as much electricity as multiple major cities."

I question how fast they are trying to do this, but ignoring the people's need for cheaper power. Instead of 4 or 5 different companies going hog wild building nuclear power plants, some with differing plans, the government should lead this nuclear expansion in a more sane and structured way.

 

[Boyd]

10 gigawatts? Bah, small change....

"In less than 48 hours, OpenAI has announced commitments equal to 17 nuclear plants or about nine Hoover Dams. The plan will require the amount of electricity needed to power more than 13 million U.S. homes."

"The biggest bottleneck for AI isn’t money or chips — it’s electricity. Altman has put money into nuclear companies because he sees their steady, concentrated output as one of the only energy sources strong enough to meet AI’s enormous demand."

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/23/sam-altman-openais-850-billion-in-planned-buildouts-bubble-concern.html

Just to put that 13 million homes number into context, a google search (without AI) says there are about 3.5 million households in New Jersey and 7.8 million in New York, which is "only" 11.3 million homes combined.

 

[Boyd]

If I understand this, there's just no way that nuclear power can provide what they need today (or anytime soon), so the power will come from the grid that we all use. I wonder how that will work out? This stuff is just crazy....

Chien, however, is blunt about the near-term limits. “As far as I know, the amount of nuclear power that could be brought on the grid before 2030 is less than a gigawatt,” he said. “So when you hear 17 gigawatts, the numbers just don’t match up.”
[...]
He said nuclear may be unavoidable in the long run if AI keeps expanding, but cautioned that “in the short term, there’s just not that much spare capacity”—whether fossil, renewable, or nuclear. “How can we expand this capacity in the short term? That’s not clear,” he said.

Sam Altman’s AI empire will devour as much power as New York City and San Diego combined. Experts say it’s ‘scary’ | Fortune

Andrew Chien told Fortune he’s been a computer scientist for 40 years but we’re close to “some seminal moments for how we think about AI and its impact on society.”

fortune.com

 

[SpinyPiney]

Have a son who is a college professor. He gave his last year's final exam to Google AI and it aced it. He then gave Google AI's answers to Chat GPT asking if it was prepared by a student without AI assistance or AI. Chat GPT identified it as being prepared by Google AI.

My wife is a professor as well, her and several others have practically stopped assigning written papers all together in many courses because of Chat GPT. She says 90% of them are written by AI and coming out and accusing students of cheating can get messy, so there’s no point to them.

 

[Teegate]

When my kids were young we taped a movie for them about young kids searching for a young ancestor who went missing years before. Turns out she fell in a hole in a tunnel. My kids did not fully understand that and kept asking how she died. They asked me 1000 times. When they became teenagers they purchased a copy of the movie and when she was found that portion was edited out. So this week we were talking about that and my daughter started using ChatGPT to ask how she died, and also telling it how she died. ChatGPT kept saying my daughter was mistaken on how she died. She argued with it for a while telling ChatGPT it was wrong, and eventually it found a post on Reddit and basically apologized saying she was correct.

 

[M1 Abrams]

On the subject of the power supply demands of AI, I recently saw the following graph comparing the electricity generation of the United States and China over the last forty years:

I had no idea China's electrical generation was nearing 250% of the U.S. output. Granted, figuring the differences in population, the U.S. still generates more electricity per capita. That being said, while China may not yet have all of the electrical juice to meet AI's huge appetite, they seem farther along on that goal than our country. (Over half of China's total is generated through coal, which is problematic for CO2 levels, but that's another story.)

 

[Boyd]

This is the Musk quote that got the headlines

“If we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over this robot army? Not control, but a strong influence … I don't feel comfortable building that robot army unless I have a strong influence.”​

But I think this one is arguably more telling

"Optimus participants in a 2024 Tesla event were later acknowledged to be not fully autonomous, but remotely operated by humans."​

Was watching CNBC this morning and they were live on the street in New York where a Tesla robot is handing out trick or treat candy to people. The way it intereacted with the reporter was pretty impressive, but my first thought was that somebody "behind the curtain" was at least supervising the robot's actions.

Elon Musk Wants ‘Strong Influence’ Over the ‘Robot Army’ He’s Building

In a Tesla earnings call Wednesday, the world’s richest man pondered the future of his company’s Optimus robots—and his control over them.

www.wired.com

But not to worry...

...Optimus will upend the job market and free humanity from the drudgery of work. (“Working will be optional, like growing your own vegetables, instead of buying them from the store,” he posted this week.) Elsewhere on the investor call Wednesday, he said that Tesla’s robots would “actually create a world where there is no poverty, where everyone has access to the finest medical care.”​

Humanity will be "free from the drudgery of work" because AI and robots will take all our jobs.

 

[bobpbx]

This is the Musk quote that got the headlines

“If we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over this robot army? Not control, but a strong influence … I don't feel comfortable building that robot army unless I have a strong influence.”​

But I think this one is arguably more telling

"Optimus participants in a 2024 Tesla event were later acknowledged to be not fully autonomous, but remotely operated by humans."​

Was watching CNBC this morning and they were live on the street in New York where a Tesla robot is handing out trick or treat candy to people. The way it intereacted with the reporter was pretty impressive, but my first thought was that somebody "behind the curtain" was at least supervising the robot's actions.

Elon Musk Wants ‘Strong Influence’ Over the ‘Robot Army’ He’s Building

In a Tesla earnings call Wednesday, the world’s richest man pondered the future of his company’s Optimus robots—and his control over them.

www.wired.com

But not to worry...

...Optimus will upend the job market and free humanity from the drudgery of work. (“Working will be optional, like growing your own vegetables, instead of buying them from the store,” he posted this week.) Elsewhere on the investor call Wednesday, he said that Tesla’s robots would “actually create a world where there is no poverty, where everyone has access to the finest medical care.”​

Humanity will be "free from the drudgery of work" because AI and robots will take all our jobs.

If the robots grow my vegetables instead of me, I'm in. The comment about the world being "free from the drudgery of work" only applies (I think) to very weathy people who can purchase robots along with the power and maintenance needed.

 

[Boyd]

From what I understand, his vision is that humanoid robots will be able to do all the jobs that other types of robots can't do, completely replacing people in automated factories. The robots would maintain the robots. If one breaks, another robot comes along to replace it while another hauls it back to the maintenance facility for repair. Supplies would be shipped in autonomous vehicles (drones, trucks, vans). At least conceptually, I don't see why this kind of system couldn't almost completely replace humans. Meanwhile, most of the management jobs would be replaced by AI and it would be much easier to manage a factory full of robots than humans with all their issues.

Of course, I'm skeptical about the whole AI frenzy. But it does raise some interesting philosophical questions about where we're heading. And - hey - here's another great use for AI!

New image-generating AIs are being used for fake expense reports

Software provider AppZen said fake AI receipts accounted for about 14% of fraud attempts.

arstechnica.com

 

[bobpbx]

From what I understand, his vision is that humanoid robots will be able to do all the jobs that other types of robots can't do, completely replacing people in automated factories. The robots would maintain the robots. If one breaks, another robot comes along to replace it while another hauls it back to the maintenance facility for repair. Supplies would be shipped in autonomous vehicles (drones, trucks, vans). At least conceptually, I don't see why this kind of system couldn't almost completely replace humans. Meanwhile, most of the management jobs would be replaced by AI and it would be much easier to manage a factory full of robots than humans with all their issues.

Of course, I'm skeptical about the whole AI frenzy. But it does raise some interesting philosophical questions about where we're heading. And - hey - here's another great use for AI!

New image-generating AIs are being used for fake expense reports

Software provider AppZen said fake AI receipts accounted for about 14% of fraud attempts.

arstechnica.com

I simply cannot imagine risking losing my job over an expense report fraud. Some people deserve to be fired.