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TED-Ed •29 Sep 2026 50 here now

Why are AI data centers using so much electricity? - Sajan Saini

Explore the challenges and possibilities of AI data centers, and how these rapidly expanding complexes use energy and resources.

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Since 2019, over a thousand warehouse campuses have popped up arou

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Absolutely marvelous
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If we poured the resources used for AI into housing for citizens, we could literally solve homelessness.
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Fabulous animations.
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So basically, a long list of reasons to dismantle AI
At the end you ask 'how many resources are we willing to spend' and that answer isnt about willingness, it's about a bunch of rich people in their ivory towers deciding that for us
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@EL_SMD From YouTube ↗ 29 Sep 2026 9
It's almost like the best option isn't to make it more "efficient", it's to not build them for AI in the first place.
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Once again, a lot of the "demand" is people being FORCED to partake in AI.

Until I get the choice, to have AI answer my google searches, then I am NOT an AI user with a demand for AI
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@BallotBoxer From YouTube ↗ 29 Sep 2026 117
🌍: "save us from the thirsty machines!"
👽: "have you tried turning them off?"
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Yes things like underwater data centers, optical fiber cables, photonic chips, small LLMs can help reduce energy usage of data centers...
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It’s crazy how much land and energy these big tech companies are destroying just for data centers. It’s exactly why I’ve been following Qubic lately. They’re trying to build an AI that runs on a totally decentralized network instead of massive server farms. Basically, independent people all over the world use their own computers to train the AI while securing the network. It just feels like a much smarter, way more sustainable approach than letting corporations pave over nature for their own monopolies.
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6:14 two paths await us, which one we end up taking depends entirely on what we choose to do now.
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‘We’ aren’t the ones asking for AI. ‘We’ aren’t the ones with the resources funding it. The problem I have with this video is the framing. We are the ones whose contributions to society have been stolen and used to devalue the fruits of our own labor. We are the ones who have energy bills inflated and have to deal with noise pollution, not the Billionaires.
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the data center that went up near me has doubled or some months tripled my bill. It's INSANITY that we're being made to foot this bill that isn't benefiting us at ALL.
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@jmsaffroy From YouTube ↗ 29 Sep 2026 44
The LLM figure here gives strong GLaDOS vibes
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@TheMensRea From YouTube ↗ 29 Sep 2026 146
Humanity in a race with itself to reach its point of self destruction.
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@kao0309100 From YouTube ↗ 29 Sep 2026 75
"Our hunger for AI"
Yeah a technology that sucks out all the electricity and water just for corporations to layoff people.
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Yup, this is definitely what we need right now.
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I think I can see the influence of Pantheon in this video.
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It’s not a social issue of “oh people want AI so we have to sacrifice” it’s an issue of corruption and wealthy elites selling out our government’s and business to pocket as much money as possible while telling us we have no choice.
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"The planet's dyin' Cloud!"
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Funny how in 2012 tech companies convinced everyone "the cloud" was this clean, invisible, weightless thing floating in the sky. Turns out the cloud is actually just a bunch of boiling hot concrete blocks quietly asking for their own dedicated nuclear reactors.