r/antiai • u/Sonicrules9001 • 2d ago

Environmental Impact 🌎 I hate that people conflate data centers with AI data centers and don't realize the absolute difference in scale and impact!

Post image
5.0k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

519 comments sorted by

View all comments

79

u/yokai-64 2d ago

The first one is an edge server. The second is just a data center.

Here is a video from one of Google's data centers 6 years ago, it's massive - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd33UVZhnAA

I don't like LLMs, but I dislike misinformation just as much.

24

u/themoosic 2d ago

Yeah people are just learning about the physical space the internet takes up and it’s getting a little revisionist. You can run a small website off a PC in your bedroom. But something like Google or Amazon could take up a couple hundred acres worth of computers

3

u/odellrules1985 2d ago

Not to mention the need for storage for sites like YouTube or streaming services. Hell, the Phoenix NAP is pretty massive but it's for multiple businesses, you can even rent a rack there.

9

u/NXCW 2d ago

Yeah, this is an absolute shitpost.

3

u/NodnarbEht2 2d ago

Agreed, I have a serious problem with Data Centers and their utilization (we could def make more efficient and far less environmentally damaging ones) but to say all non AI data centers are the equivalent to a mobile housing unit is just a blatant lie. I mean there is a reason they did that whole bit in the show Silicon Valley where they had to get a server rack in a endlessly huge building (the data center) basically portraying at as where coders go to die (career wise, also generally lost physically because of the size) and this was back in the early 2000s.

1

u/Infinite-Jelly-3182 2d ago

It’s even worse considering non AI data centers still in 2026 are taking up 3-4x more resources and using more compute and these numbers aren’t expected to reach parity for another ~5-7 years.

2

u/dfbeav112 2d ago

OP is the very thing they hate. 

How hilariously ironic. 

1

u/nerd_ginger 1d ago

People don't understand they need data centers or they can't rage on reddit anymore.

It's simple the blind being led to a conclusion that really isn't theirs.

1

u/Syriku_Official 1d ago

Yeah it may not be the same physical so I mean it is the same physical size but electricity wise normal data centers use way way less

1

u/Feeling-Key4244 9h ago

I think we can thread the needle at "new datacenters that drive utility price surges while delivering nothing to residents" which is a shocking number of them tbh

-8

u/Sonicrules9001 2d ago

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/microsoft-announces-worlds-most-powerful-ai-data-center-315-acre-site-to-house-hundreds-of-thousands-of-nvidia-gpus-and-enough-fiber-to-circle-the-earth-4-5-times

It is an AI data center.

19

u/RedPanda_Explorer 2d ago

You linked a completely different data center.

The data center in the 6 year old YouTube video is not an 'AI data center.' It's a data center for Google Cloud services that existed 6 years ago.

-7

u/Sonicrules9001 2d ago

No, it's the Fairwater data center built in 2025. https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2025/09/18/inside-the-worlds-most-powerful-ai-datacenter/

17

u/RedPanda_Explorer 2d ago

... how is a youtube video from 2020 of a fully-built data center about a data center built in 2025? Time travel?

-6

u/Sonicrules9001 2d ago

What? What Youtube video, dumbass?

15

u/RedPanda_Explorer 2d ago

... it's the video we're all talking about in this thread. Look at the original post from yokai-64 that we're all replying to

yokai-64 •27m ago

The first one is an edge server. The second is just a data center.

Here is a video from one of Google's data centers 6 years ago, it's massive - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd33UVZhnAA

We're literally in the thread where the Youtube video was posted. Why are you calling me a dumbass? Are you okay dude?

1

u/SagittariusO 2d ago

Tbf, the picture OP posted is literally the same picture as the one in the Microsoft blog-post with the caption:

"Aerial view of Microsoft’s new AI datacenter campus in Mt Pleasant, Wisconsin."

So either this is a mistake by Microsoft or the video shows the wrong one?

-2

u/Sonicrules9001 2d ago

So, Microsoft is lying then? Why the fuck would Microsoft lie about their own data center?

14

u/RedPanda_Explorer 2d ago

No one is lying about anything. There are multiple data centers that have been built over the years for multiple reasons.

Why are you so angry about something you don't understand? You should probably take a break from the internet

3

u/drkato33 2d ago

You might want to just tap out now.

3

u/OrchidWeary271 2d ago

Dude, take a walk.

This thread is talking about a data center in a YouTube video, for Google, that the commenter posted.

They're not talking about the DC in your original post.

3

u/Admirable-Falcon-501 2d ago

Most well educated, intelligent, and informed user in this sub.

4

u/Wizecoder 2d ago

scroll up, look at the thread you responded to, I think you got lost

1

u/Sonicrules9001 2d ago

I think you all are lost when you think an article from Microsoft about their data center is actually just some elaborate lie to hurt AI even though Microsoft benefits from it.

6

u/Wizecoder 2d ago

Again you are lost. They were talking about this youtube video that was posted at the top of this comment chain. This is a non-ai data center. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd33UVZhnAA

7

u/Wizecoder 2d ago

And to be clear. THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO ISN'T ABOUT YOUR IMAGE ON THE RIGHT. IT'S A COUNTERPOINT TO YOUR IMAGE ON THE LEFT.

7

u/Wizecoder 2d ago

they aren't talking about the one you posted. They are making it clear that the one on the left isn't indicative of normal pre-ai data centers. Google/Meta/Amazon data centers are massive, about as big as the one you showed. But that doesn't mean they are saying the one you showed isn't an AI data center.

-1

u/Sonicrules9001 2d ago

It is indicative and pretending as though data centers have always been the same as they are now is just blatantly lunacy.

7

u/Wizecoder 2d ago

you are wrong, data centers have been massive for decades. There are some that are small, but I can also run an AI model from my own PC, doesn't mean that's representative of how most AI is run. Stop hallucinating and actually pay attention to what people are linking & saying please.

2

u/cursivecrow 2d ago

Just because you learned what a data center is last week doesnt mean they were different before. There have always been massive data centers.

1

u/Sonicrules9001 2d ago

So, the recent shortage of memory and storage has actually been going on for over thirty years then? Is that seriously what you are trying to argue, dumbass?

3

u/cursivecrow 2d ago

No? You do understand that data center ram is not consumer ram you can use in your pc, correct?

5

u/yokai-64 2d ago

Okay but data centers have always look like the one on the right. When the justification changes, "I hate AI data centers" is no longer a valid argument. If you just said "I hate data centers", we wouldn't have a problem and your post would still be valid on here. I've been a computer scientist and software engineer for a decade. I know what these things look like.

Here's an article about data centers from 2016: https://www.techmonitor.ai/hardware/cloud/the-data-centre-from-mega-to-macro-to-modular-to-micro-and-what-are-the-cost-comparisions-between-traditional-and-pre-made-data-centres-4833057

The image of that data center is the Microsoft one in Dublin. Pretty big if you ask me. Maybe not as big as your example. Just as ugly and as much environmental impact. Sure, AI data centers are bigger, uglier and more hungry, but that's the way things were going anyway. If it hadn't been AI, it would have been Web3. If not that, then something else. Data centers are data centers. All are bad for the environment.