Three Mile Island Reopening? For AI? One Pollution justifies the other
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Have you seen this latest news article?
There is talk about reopening one of the three units that form the infamous Three Mile Island powerplant, to feed the enormous energy needs of Microsoft’s AI computations.
The article states “The plant will be named “Crane Clean Energy Center” in honor of Constellation parent company Exelon’s former CEO Chris Crane, who died in 2022.” Clean energy — What an outrageous lie! The dirtiness of a nuclear power plant cannot be surpassed as it produces byproducts that are radioactive for tens of thousand years and is an ecological nightmare by using gigantic amounts of fresh water for cooling, water that is taken from rivers and spoiled as habitat.
The release does not specifically mention AI, but Microsoft’s new efforts in this area have jeopardized its carbon emission goals for 2030, and the agreement might be one way Microsoft is addressing those power needs. The company’s latest sustainability report showed a 30% jump in carbon emissions from 2020 to 2023.
The term “sustainability” as used by Microsoft is just a cover for keeping up dirty practices required for sustaining its profits.
AI is another form of pollution, more insidious than the other. While it has beneficial uses in data mining (think about medical diagnostics), AI’s introduction into every sphere of our culture, our lives, via chatgpt and other generative tools, will have disastrous consequences for our civilization.
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