Serendipity35

 

David Pogue on Substack writes that "When you do a Google search these days, you generally see an AI Overview panel above the search results. It’s intended to summarize the answers to your query, so you don’t have to click any links. The first problem: By Google’s own calculations, the AI Overviews are incorrect 28% of the time. The bigger problem: AI is an environmental disaster. It’s already a monstrous energy hog, and its appetite is doubling every six months."

 He gives some data about this data center power situation:

• 4,200 data centers that AI companies have built and 1,500 more are going up as you read this
• By 2030, AI will consume 945 terawatt-hours of electricity. That is enough to power every household in California, Texas, Florida, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania combined. Almost incomprehensible.
• 60% of that power will come from polluting power sources.
• Don’t care about the environment? How about your power bill? AI’s power needs have driven up electricity costs as much as 15% in the last year, with another 8.5% hike coming by the end of 2026.
• Add in more rolling blackouts during heat waves this summer.

But it’s not just Google, because almost every big company is eager to add AI to their products.

Pogue's note of hope is that a few people, like Sheila Morovati, are trying to make AI optional. Morovati is the founder and president of a nonprofit called HabitsofWaste.org. Her movement is called Opt-In AI with a goal of no AI at all unless someone asks for it. The default setting should be the most sustainable and least annoying option.

More at Rise Up, People! Make AI Optional! - David Pogue

The headline reads "YouTube will now automatically label AI videos." But the question is HOW will they do that?

Via YouTube's blog, we find that since 2024, they have been labeling content when creators disclose they've used AI tools. 

"Starting in May 2026, we’re rolling out new internal signals to help identify AI-generated content. If a creator doesn’t specify whether or not they used AI, but our systems detect significant photorealistic AI use, we will now automatically apply a label. As this technology continues to improve, creators remain in control. If a creator thinks their content was incorrectly identified as AI-generated, they can update the disclosure status in YouTube Studio. 
However, disclosures will remain permanent in a handful of cases, including: 
Content created using YouTube’s own AI tools, like Veo or Dream Screen. 
Content containing C2PA metadata indicating they were fully generative AI.
These changes are designed to balance transparency with creator control. It’s important to note that a disclosure label alone does not change how a video is recommended or whether it’s eligible to earn money."

In addition to its policing of AI content, the company has been investing in AI for things like its interactive search feature, Ask YouTube, a playlist generator for YouTube Music, AI video summaries, and other generative AI creation tools.

 

Of course, there is a YouTube video about this.

I wrote last week about plans to harvest solar power from space for places like data centers. If it sounds like science fiction, that might be because it was first imagined in a 1941 short story, "Reason," by Isaac Asimov. (see below)

It was formally proposed by engineer Peter Glasser in 1968, a space pioneer who introduced the idea of using satellites to beam solar energy from space down to Earth. Over the decades, what Glaser envisioned has been known by many names — space-based solar power (SBSP), solar-power satellites or satellite power system (SPS), as well as satellite solar-power system (SSPS). Glaser's contributions to space science and technology were not limited to the solar-power satellite concept. He also worked on NASA's Apollo moon missions and headed an experiment that flew aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 1986.

But solar power from space beamed to Earth has remained mostly theoretical due to cost and complexity.

Data centers need power. A lot of power. People don't want data centers in their neighborhoods. Where will it come from? From space?

Meta announced a deal with startup Overview Energy to purchase solar power collected by satellite and beamed back to Earth.

It is an experimental approach that could power data centers at night. Unlike traditional solar power, which relies on storing daylight, space-based solar power aims to deliver continuous energy.

Overview Energy plans to deploy satellites over 22,000 miles from Earth's equator, where they would collect and transmit infrared energy to solar panels. A test is scheduled for 2028, with a commercial rollout in 2030. Meta is seeking up to 1 gigawatt of power from the project, underscoring its energy needs for AI.

It sounds a bit wishful thinking if you look at the numbers. In 2024, Meta's data centers consumed 18,000 times the electricity that this deal would deliver in a single hour. 

Space-based solar power (SBSP) involves harvesting solar energy in orbit and beaming it to Earth, providing 24/7 clean energy unaffected by weather, nighttime, or atmospheric filtering. There are challanges: high launch costs, complex orbital assembly of massive structures, and wireless energy transfer.