In 2023, Google and Microsoft each consumed 24 TWh of electricity, surpassing the consumption of over 100 nations, including places like Iceland, Ghana, and Tunisia, according to an analysis by Michael Thomas. While massive energy usage means a substantial environmental impact for these tech giants, it should be noted that Google and Microsoft also generate more money than many countries. Furthermore, companies like Intel, Google, and Microsoft lead renewable energy adoption within the industry.

Detailed analysis reveals that Google's and Microsoft's electricity consumption — 24 TWh in 2023 — equals the power consumption of Azerbaijan (a nation of 10.14 million) and is higher than that of several other countries. For instance, Iceland, Ghana, the Dominican Republic, and Tunisia each consumed 19 TWh, while Jordan consumed 20 TWh. Of course, some countries consume more power than Google and Microsoft. For example, Slovakia, a country with 5.4 million inhabitants, consumes 26 TWh.

While the Goldman-Sachs report was brought up in our community before, I thought this blog post was very well written, while also providing a lot of additional references and helpful material that expands upon the points in the report.

AI is overhyped and unreliable -Goldman Sachs

https://www.404media.co/goldman-sachs-ai-is-overhyped-wildly-expensive-and-unreliable/

"Despite its expensive price tag, the technology is nowhere near where it needs to be in order to be useful for even such basic tasks"

@technology@lemmy.world

In a significant data breach, hacktivist group NullBulge has infiltrated Disney's internal Slack infrastructure, leaking 1.2TB of sensitive data. This breach, posted on the cybercrime platform Breach Forums on July 12, 2024, exposes many of Disney's internal communications, compromising messages, files, code, and other proprietary information.

Rural and suburban families from Baltimore, Frederick, and Carroll Counties waited in a line extending down the road to enter a gathering hall at a local senior center, where a company named "Public Service Enterprise Group" held a community information session regarding the "Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project." Some of the people in line had heard of the project by word-of-mouth less than 48 hours prior to attending the July 12th event. Despite being formed on July 9th, 2024, the facebook group "STOP MPRP" had a large presence as a collective of concerned citizens at the event. The group reached 7,000 members the day after the event.

The project's stated goal is to improve the reliability of the grid, which distributes power to datacenters in neighboring Virginia. Rather than building renewable power closer to the datacenters, the project instead calls for fossil fuel derived energy to be distributed across Maryland along 70 miles of transmission lines out of Pennsylvania, which does not have the same green energy initiatives as the impacted states. Representatives from PSEG answering questions at the event included engineers and contractors, some of whom had been assigned to the project for under 31 days. The representatives at the session stated they had not anticipated such a large turnout for the two-hour event, based on the attendance of the first events earlier in the week. Many residents left feeling frustrated that they could not find policy and decision makers to answer their questions.

The project is funded by additional tariffs across Maryland and surrounding states. Local attorneys encouraged residents to consider forming a non-profit entity to pool resources for a looming legal battle, that PSEG has indicated may include the acquisition of property rights through the governmental power of eminent domain. One of the frequently-asked-questions on PSEG's website characterizes eminent domain as a less-preferred alternative to their own negotiation process. Residents within the direct path of the project stand to lose rights to multi-generation farmland, including trees that are considered "a gentleman's life work," as described in a letter to the regional transmission operator's CEO.

In other states, there has been similar community backlash against "Proposal 853," which outlines the plan to connect Loudoun County's "Data Center Alley" to fossil fuel power generation in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

According to the YouTube channel Gamers Nexus, over 600,000 customer warranty claims for MSI products were publicly accessible via Google search. MSI, a leading computer hardware and peripherals manufacturer, had exposed data that included sensitive information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and specific order details.

A bipartisan group of senators introduced a new bill to make it easier to authenticate and detect artificial intelligence-generated content and protect journalists and artists from having their work gobbled up by AI models without their permission.

The Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act (COPIED Act) would direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to create standards and guidelines that help prove the origin of content and detect synthetic content, like through watermarking. It also directs the agency to create security measures to prevent tampering and requires AI tools for creative or journalistic content to let users attach information about their origin and prohibit that information from being removed. Under the bill, such content also could not be used to train AI models.

Content owners, including broadcasters, artists, and newspapers, could sue companies they believe used their materials without permission or tampered with authentication markers. State attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission could also enforce the bill, which its backers say prohibits anyone from “removing, disabling, or tampering with content provenance information” outside of an exception for some security research purposes.

(A copy of the bill is in he article, here is the important part imo:

Prohibits the use of “covered content” (digital representations of copyrighted works) with content provenance to either train an AI- /algorithm-based system or create synthetic content without the express, informed consent and adherence to the terms of use of such content, including compensation)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/17926125

A BBC investigation reveals that Microsoft is permanently banning Palestinians in the U.S. and other countries who use Skype to call relatives in Gaza.

Reportedly, Microsoft has been banning and wiping the accounts of users who have leveraged Skype to contact relatives in Gaza. In some cases, email accounts over a decade old have been locked, destroying access to banking accounts, OneDrive storage, and beyond.

United States resident Salah Elsadi lost his account of over 15 years in the dragnet. "I've had this Hotmail for 15 years. They banned me for no reason, saying I have violated their terms — what terms? Tell me. I've filled out about 50 forms and called them many many times." Eiad Hametto from Saudi Arabia echoed the report, "We are civilians with no political background who just wanted to check on our families. They’ve suspended my email account that I’ve had for nearly 20 years. It was connected to all my work. They killed my life online."

Many of the users affected by the bans expressed that Microsoft may be falsely labelling them as Hamas

After the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary released a report accusing the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) of colluding with companies to censor conservative voices online, Elon Musk chimed in. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Musk wrote that X "has no choice but to file suit against the perpetrators and collaborators" behind an advertiser boycott on his platform.

"Hopefully, some states will consider criminal prosecution," Musk wrote, leading several X users to suggest that Musk wants it to be illegal for brands to refuse to advertise on X.

Among other allegations, Congress' report claimed that GARM—which is part of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), whose members "represent roughly 90 percent of global advertising spend, or almost one trillion dollars annually"—directed advertisers to boycott Twitter shortly after Musk took over the platform.

Twitter/X's revenue tanked after Musk's takeover, with Bloomberg reporting last month that X lost almost 40 percent of revenue in the first six months of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. That's worse than prior estimates last May, which put Twitter's loss around one-third of its total valuation. Ars chronicled the worst impacts of the ad boycott, including sharp drop-offs in the US, where an internal Twitter presentation leaked to The New York Times showed Twitter's ad revenue was down by as much as 59 percent "for the five weeks from April 1 to the first week of May" in 2023.

Last year, Musk sued other "collaborators" in the X boycott, including hate speech researchers, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), and Media Matters for America (MMFA). However, his suit against the CCDH was dismissed this March, and Media Matters has claimed that Musk filing his MMFA lawsuit in Texas may be "fatal" because of a jurisdictional defect.

The vast majority of the massive, metallic towers the city commissioned to help low-income neighborhoods access high-speed 5G internet still lack cell signal equipment -- more than two years after hundreds of the structures began sprouting across the five boroughs. Just two of the nearly 200 Link5G towers installed by tech firm CityBridge since 2022 have been fitted with 5G equipment, company officials said. Delayed installations and cooling enthusiasm around 5G technology have discouraged carriers like Verizon from using the towers to build out their networks, experts say. The firm only has an agreement with a single telecommunications carrier to deliver high-speed internet, stymieing its efforts to boost mobile connectivity citywide.

The 32-foot-tall structures, which resemble giant tampon applicators emerging from the sidewalk, offer the same services as the LinkNYC electronic billboards that popped up around the city in 2016. Those were also installed by CityBridge. Both the original Link kiosks and the 5G towers provide free limited-range Wi-Fi, charging outlets and a tablet to connect users to city services. Data shared by the company shows that 16 million people have used the internet at kiosks since 2016, and the attached tablets are used to call for city services thousands of times each month. But unlike the LinkNYC kiosks, each new tower is topped with a 12-foot-tall cylindrical mesh chamber containing five empty shelves reserved for companies like Verizon and T-Mobile to store the equipment they use to transmit high-speed 5G internet service to paying customers.

Emphases mine because of that hilarious but completely spot-on description..