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US Government Launches New Attempt to Gather Data on Electricity Usage of Bitcoin Mining
(insideclimatenews.org)
this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2024
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Technology
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Better late than never, I suppose.
This singles out a single industry. Why not data centers in general or also add in AI?
I wouldn't consider cryptocurrency an industry. At best, it's unregulated stocks whose value is backed by speculation. At worst, it's a waste of resources and a low-risk way for malware authors to profit off of victims.
Don't get me wrong, though. AI is also deserving of the same treatment.
Note that the second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, no longer uses proof-of-work to validate its chain. So any regulations or data on electricity usage will be basically irrelevant to it.
Hopefully other crypto follows suit.
Would you consider finance to be an industry? Because crypto is the same thing without the legalized grift.
The military is one of the larger stakeholders in AI advancement, and generally doesn’t care about the environment. There will not be a probe that could stifle future advancement in military applications.
I'm pretty sure the military cares, at least to the extent that it will cause instability. I'm 99% sure there's something from the Pentagon to support that. I wanna say Pentagon wants us to address it before it starts making them do their job a whole lot more.
For one particular example, the military is currently funding a program to research techniques to use AI for automated vulnerability discovery and exploitation. The info is public here: https://aicyberchallenge.com/
I'm not disputing that they want to use AI. I'm disputing the idea that the military doesn't care about climate change. Climate change will cause instability and greatly increase the odds of them having to actually fight. As much as the military enjoys a good flex now and then, they generally prefer to win without fighting.
The only military "advancements" are genocide and the destruction of the planet.
Ofc the state is going after bitcoin instead.