The Tech Job Meltdown

Every year, it becomes more and more apparent that the philosophy of tech companies is to break or avoid the law and hope you're too big for the government to do something about it.

tomhow•17h ago

Url changed from https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jun/12/xai-data-center/ which points to this.

cheschire•17h ago

The Politico article linked at the top of the same post has far more detail.

tomhow•17h ago

Ok thanks, changed.

drexlspivey•17h ago

I was under the impression that they specifically picked this location because there is a big power plant nearby which they can hook into. Why are they building their own turbines?

nikanj•17h ago

Power plant needs to follow environmental reqs which leads to higher energy cost. Burning fuel on-site with no emissions control is cheaper

SR2Z•10h ago

Sure, but the difference between burning propane without a filter and coal with a filter is probably not that large. Propane is a clean-burning fuel.

blibble•16h ago

the real weakness of the "AI industry" seems to be the massive increase in CO2 emissions required

if I was trying to kill it politically that's exactly what I'd focus on

ricardobeat•16h ago

I’m sure they are conveniently skirting some regulations in the name of speed, and should not be allowed to do so, but is there hard data on pollution levels increasing around the area? Haven’t seen it in any of these reports, instead there are FLIR videos of “pollution” coming out of the turbines.

bradgranath•8h ago

If your neighbor fired up 35 construction/welding generators across the street you'd notice the smell, right?

These things are turbines, each the size of a shipping container.

I don't think you need IR evidence to know that it would be unpleasant.

steeve•15h ago

Musk doing Musk things

cobythedog•12h ago

"We Went to the Town Elon Musk is Poisoning"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VJT2JeDCyw&pp=ygUJZWxvbiB0b...