The AI Gigafactories call is now open.

[jakekb@mastodon.social]

@HennaVirkkunen Announcing this while half your continent is literally on fire and thousands of people have died from an unprecedent heatwave is quite indicative of how detached EU leadership is from reality. If you are going to ignore the backlash and move on with your plans based solely on the advice of tech lobbyists, then please don't speak about democracy ever again. You are fascist who imposes the will of big tech on your citizens and should be treated as such.

[adrian@mastodon.design]

@HennaVirkkunen I'm sure a person who thinks AI is actually intelligent would think this is a smart plan.

We already have water shortages. Wild fires. Energy crisis. We absolutely do not need this hot garbage to exponentially increase those issues.

[collectifission@greennuclear.online]

@uint8_t If only the EU had been this swiftly on building nuclear power plants.

@HennaVirkkunen

[deuxmak@mstdn.social]

@HennaVirkkunen

EU being almost literally like...

[martijnveken@infosec.exchange]

@HennaVirkkunen Beter plan: send me 15 billion and keep the other 15 billion in your pocket. This way in the end we both have 15 billion more than with your original plan

[damon@social.wedistribute.org]

@HennaVirkkunen@ec.social-network.europa.eu some people will say abandon AI altogether, I think that’s negligent and people aren’t using their brains, especially as adversarial countries will not stop advancing AI. Being at a disadvantage against adverbial countries would be a terrible position.
I do encourage instead of Giga factories lead the charge in edge computing & services, in local AI. Chinese companies are advancing significantly with fewer resources so it’s clearly possible. Figure out how to advance using fewer resources

[nicoparis@eupolicy.social]

@HennaVirkkunen Instead of investing in AI which will vociferously consume electricity and water, we need to be investing faster and investing more in decarbonising our economies, in producing clean, renewable energy and in adapting to climate change!

[kir@mastodon.uno]

@engineer @danielquinn @HennaVirkkunen

this is actually funny

[patrick_h_lauke@mastodon.social]

@HennaVirkkunen how about fuck no? which part of the disastrous environmental impact of these monstrosities have you not understood?

[patrick_h_lauke@mastodon.social]

@HennaVirkkunen "it's ok, the next versions of these will be powered by dried-up rivers and burning forests, no doubt..."

[hiisikoloart@writing.exchange]

@HennaVirkkunen
Please read all of these comments and wake up from your bubble dreams. Seriously.

We so not need this. We need, collectively, clean air, clean water, clean energy, clean food.

Invest to to saving the planet, not destroying it even faster, and invest to more trees, cooling the cities that are BURNING, making sure people can grow food locally, and bettering public services in EU countries.

Also prioritize fighting the clear rise of facism.
We beg of you.

[precariousmind@neopaquita.es]

@HennaVirkkunen I have to say this in Spanish:
cuando vosotros vais, la gente ya está de vuelta.
Brace for impact.

[neongod@mstdn.social]

@HennaVirkkunen Just before the whole bubble bursts and while the whole continent (and the planet) is on fire. Ridiculous. I really hope it fails. Even if it's our, the taxpayers money you waste on this.

[kosure@mas.to]

@HennaVirkkunen Take this shit to W

[ngrn@soc.ngrn.uk]

@HennaVirkkunen The only people who want this either don’t understand what AI is, or they run companies that will tender bids which will be approved by people who don’t understand what AI is.

[aqunt@piipitin.fi]

@HennaVirkkunen I hear there’s some prime land currently being cleared so you can build your data centers there. For example near Madrid and Bordeaux there’s now lots of unused land ready to be developed. /s

[sloanlance@mastodon.social]

@HennaVirkkunen

"Gigafactory" is a term coined and popularized by known fascist and racist Elon Musk. "AI Factory" was coined by NVIDIA to make investments into their graphics cards look like a reasonable way to use one's resources.

That alone should stop anyone from using those terms or their composita. The fact that "AI" hasn't shown meaningful contribution to economic growth or increased productivity is another mark against it.

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[sloanlance@mastodon.social]

@HennaVirkkunen

But "AI" does what it was built to do: Disenfranchise Labor, push down wages, increase power and economic inequality. Those "Factories" produce injustice. No democracy should want anything to do with it.

https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/117008662026532827

🧵 2/2

[paavi@mastodontti.fi]

@ansuz @engineer @danielquinn @HennaVirkkunen Not to mention money wasted on Hyperloop thingies.

[larsmb@mastodon.online]

@HennaVirkkunen How does this square with the sustainability goals, or the human rights charter (Amnesty International has thoughts on the compatibility here)?