"On another issue, House Republican leaders have an agreement with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and the White House on language for the NDAA that would block states from regulating AI." pic.twitter.com/woiH1l6xHp

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) December 1, 2025

We are so fvcked. pic.twitter.com/j5yy6ELbpK

— Dr. Clown, PhD (@DrClownPhD) December 11, 2025

Data: Gallup. Chart: Jacque Schrag/Axios Visuals

"AI feels like magic largely because most of us don't understand how it really works, Axios' Amy Harder writes.

That "magic" is actually a giant stack of energy, hardware and software working together so your computer can turn a few typed words into a giant cat sightseeing in Seattle. Let's break it down, working backwards:

Step 8: I use an AI tool like ChatGPT or Gemini to write a prompt for an image of my cat stretching next to Seattle's Space Needle and ... voila!

Step 7: Inside a data center, the image I requested is crunched by powerful chips called GPUs (graphics processing units).

All this computing creates a lot of heat. So data centers need massive cooling systems, which use a lot of electricity.

Step 6: The companies running these AI systems rely on GPUs built mainly by one company, Nvidia.

A GPU is designed to handle huge numbers of small calculations at once, which is exactly what AI needs.

Step 5: Those GPUs sit inside cloud infrastructure that large tech companies own and operate.

These companies provide the software that lets AI systems actually run on all that hardware.

Step 4: Because millions of people are using AI, data centers need vast amounts of electricity.

Global electricity demand from AI-optimized data centers is projected to more than quadruple by 2030.

Step 3: Then there's the world of companies that build and operate the data centers themselves.

Step 2: The data centers from Step 3 need to connect to the electric grid.

Key players, from grid operators to utilities to firms acting as middlemen, help data center builders secure two scarce resources: land and power.

Step 1: It all starts with an original energy source a wind farm, nuclear power or natural gas plant that powers data centers."
Axios

bearister said:

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That "magic" is actually a giant stack of energy, hardware and software working together so your computer can turn a few typed words into a giant cat sightseeing in Seattle.

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# boycotting big baad AI

smh said:

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bearister said:

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That "magic" is actually a giant stack of energy, hardware and software working together so your computer can turn a few typed words into a giant cat sightseeing in Seattle.

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# boycotting big baad AI

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DNA storage capacity is extraordinarily high, with one gram theoretically holding hundreds of exabytes (billions of gigabytes) of data.

AI is coming for you for harvesting.


"I've got eyes on smh. Coordinates have been communicated to Retriever."

bearister said:

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"Analysts point to power-hungry AI data centers as a driver of rising rates, especially in data center hot spots. Data centers consumed about 4% of the nation's total electricity in 2023. The Energy Department estimates it could increase to 12% by 2028."
Axios

First AI will keep us in the dark, and then the robots will make their move.

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Prediction - Cal will be the first program in the nation to have robots attend their games. The Haas of Pain will be full and rocking again. Bearister, your thoughts?

Notre Dame will have the first AI basketball coach….who will rip a referee's head off and FedX it to a data center for DNA harvesting.

The current coach probably beats his wife.

Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios

"A new report from Goldman Sachs Research warns: "AI can potentially automate tasks that account for 25% of all work hours in the U.S. This significant exposure has raised concerns around widespread and permanent job loss, sparking fears of a 'job apocalypse' or 'humans going the way of horses.'"

Anthropic revealed this week that one of its AI tools, Claude Code, built a new product, Cowork, which allows others to use AI for workplace tasks normally done by humans creating presentations, summarizing meetings, consolidating research.

You read that right: AI built AI that will displace human work with AI. Use that for a glimpse of what's coming.

Some top tech leaders are talking privately about losing interest in H-1B visas the ones tech companies use to hire top overseas talent. The reason: They now assume AI will do the work.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a hot new San Francisco startup, Mercor, has hired more than 30,000 contractors to recruit specialists, from psychologists to dermatologists, to train AI to do their jobs. The company got a $10 billion valuation for a reason.

Elon Musk, in a new "Moonshots" podcast episode, says AI is good enough today to replace half of white-collar jobs. He also argues it's "pointless" to go to medical school except for "social reasons." Robots, he says, will be doing surgery at scale within three years.

Why it matters: Nothing will determine the future of AI, politics and employment more than if and how fast the new technology destroys good-paying jobs."
Axios

The cruelty is the point. https://t.co/rn31W3AHio

— Emily Jashinsky (@emilyjashinsky) January 17, 2026

Cheeseburger and fries order >>> smash burger and mashed potatoes.

"Elon Musk and his SpaceX team believe they've cracked the code on building orbiting data centers to power the future of AI and plan to use the company's upcoming public offering to help fund the audacious vision, according to people briefed on the plans……

Here's how it works: Musk plans to use SpaceX's Starship the most powerful launch vehicle ever built to create a huge satellite constellation, much like today's Starlink constellation, as the data centers of the future.

Today's rockets can't lift the heavy cooling systems that AI chips require. Starship can. It will carry massive next-generation Starlink satellites that function less like internet routers and more like supercomputers in the sky.
By positioning these satellites in a high orbit that stays in constant sunlight, they can harvest solar power around the clock. No night. No clouds. No electric bills.

And instead of sending data through fiber-optic cables under the ocean, information travels between satellites via laser beams through the vacuum of space faster and without the infrastructure.

Reality check: Cooling computers in space is brutally hard. On Earth, air carries heat away from processors. In the vacuum of space, there's no air so chips overheat and die.

Musk claims SpaceX has designed massive, foldable radiators that unfurl in orbit to vent heat into the cold of deep space. Skeptics call it the biggest engineering hurdle since the reusable rocket."
Axios

* Elon Musk has cut a massive $10 million check to bolster Nate Morris, an outsider, pro-Trump candidate running to succeed retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Axios' Alex Isenstadt has learned.

While you're right, the challenges exist, it's not impossible or even unthinkable to do.

Space can actually be an advantage for large-scale computing because the vacuum acts as an "infinite heat sink" once you set up efficient radiators, no need for water or fans, potentially making it more sustainable than Earth-based setups.

bearister said:

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Reality check: Cooling computers in space is brutally hard. On Earth, air carries heat away from processors. In the vacuum of space, there's no air so chips overheat and die.

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Reality check: Axios reporters make dumb scientific assumptions

The temperature of outer space is -455 degrees Fahrenheit. When you expose a heated area to the vacuum of space, the heat gets sucked out of that space and evacuated to the frigid cold of outer space, which can more than accommodate the heat generated by processors and graphics chips.

The problem in space isn't the lack of air, it's the lack of gravity.

https://www.earth.com/news/cooling-things-down-in-space-isnt-as-easy-as-it-would-seem/

Quote:

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In space, water doesn't behave the way we're used to seeing on Earth. If you've ever noticed water dripping down the back of your fridge or fog forming on a cold soda can, you've seen condensation at work.

On Earth, gravity quickly pulls that water downward. But what happens in space, where gravity doesn't get a say?
[url=https://earthsnap.onelink.me/3u5Q/ags2loc4][/url]
That's the question scientists are finally answering aboard the International Space Station.

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Quote:

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On Earth, liquid droplets form and slide down to the bottom of the fin. But in microgravity, the liquid sticks to the entire surface of the fin instead of pooling at the bottom.

"The liquid seems to be attracted to cold surfaces as a safe place to go, unlike what happens with heat transfer on Earth," said senior researcher Andrey Glushchuk from the Centre for Research and Engineering in Space Technologies (CREST) at the Universit Libre de Bruxelles.

Without gravity, everything changes. Thermal systems built for Earth just don't work the same way in orbit.

Engineers need new ways to handle heat in satellites, spacecraft, and even in future moon bases or Mars habitats. And the answers lie in the math.

"Any thermal system designed with ground standards won't work in microgravity. We need to create new designs with novel concepts in mind," said Glushchuk.

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The other challenge is to maintain an optimum operating temperature in space. You don't want systems overheating, but you don't want them freezing either. Rocket engines are designed to keep from getting too cold in space so that they can start up when needed.

I always thought this was one of the coolest things Musk did:




Where is it now?

dunno, but most likely (like Musk) Lost In Space

"It's a no brainer for building solar powered AI data centers in space, you just have solar panels facing the sun, & a radiator that's pointed away from sun, then it's just cooling. The lowest cost place to put AI will be space, & that'll be true within 3 years."

一 Elon Musk pic.twitter.com/ehKVrczZGz

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) January 22, 2026

ELON MUSK: "In the future, the robots will make so many robots, that they will actually saturate all human needs, meaning you won't be able to even think of something to ask the robot for at a certain point, like there will be such an abundance of goods and services. There'll be… pic.twitter.com/qsWxH2Ft8d

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) January 22, 2026

smh said:

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dunno, but most likely (like Musk) Lost In Space

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"Elon Musk's Starman (a mannequin in a Tesla Roadster) is still in orbit around the Sun, traveling on an elliptical path that takes it beyond Mars and back towards Earth's orbit, currently millions of miles from Earth and heading toward the Sun, potentially for millions of years before a planetary impact, though its condition is deteriorating from solar radiation. You can track its real-time location and estimated path using sites like WhereIsRoadster.com and TheSkyLive."
AI Summary



Starman plays David Bowie's "Space Oddity" on repeat, along with "Life on Mars?",

PAC-10-BEAR said:

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"It's a no brainer for building solar powered AI data centers in space, you just have solar panels facing the sun, & a radiator that's pointed away from sun, then it's just cooling. The lowest cost place to put AI will be space, & that'll be true within 3 years."

一 Elon Musk pic.twitter.com/ehKVrczZGz

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) January 22, 2026

ELON MUSK: "In the future, the robots will make so many robots, that they will actually saturate all human needs, meaning you won't be able to even think of something to ask the robot for at a certain point, like there will be such an abundance of goods and services. There'll be… pic.twitter.com/qsWxH2Ft8d

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) January 22, 2026

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No thank you

Aunburdened said:

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No thank you

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Elon could be paving the way for the Antichrist and the new world order.

Whatever deep dark cave in the universe Musk and Bezos hide in after departing dying planet earth, AI will find them and kill them.

Source: Axios Blunt AI talk https://share.google/ljvjX2MMyRIVuGy0s

"Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is warning of "real danger" that superhuman intelligence will cause civilization level damage absent smart, speedy intervention, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.

In a 38-page essay, Amodei writes: "I believe we are entering a rite of passage, both turbulent and inevitable, which will test who we are as a species."

"Humanity is about to be handed almost unimaginable power, and it is deeply unclear whether our social, political, and technological systems possess the maturity to wield it."

Among Amodei's warnings in "The Adolescence of Technology":

Massive job loss: "I ... simultaneously think that AI will disrupt 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs over 15 years, while also thinking we may have AI that is more capable than everyone in only 12 years."

AI with nation-state power: "I think the best way to get a handle on the risks of AI is to ask the following question: Suppose a literal 'country of geniuses' were to materialize somewhere in the world in ~2027. Imagine, say, 50 million people, all of whom are much more capable than any Nobel Prize winner, statesman, or technologist. ... I think it should be clear that this is a dangerous situation."

Rising terror threat:"Most individual bad actors are disturbed individuals, so almost by definition their behavior is unpredictable and irrational and it's these bad actors, the unskilled ones, who might have stood to benefit the most from AI making it much easier to kill many people."

Call to action: "[W]ealthy individuals have an obligation to help solve this problem," Amodei says. "It is sad to me that many wealthy individuals (especially in the tech industry) have recently adopted a cynical and nihilistic attitude that philanthropy is inevitably fraudulent or useless."

The bottom line: "Humanity needs to wake up, and this essay is an attempt a possibly futile one, but it's worth trying to jolt people awake."
Axios

bearister said:

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"Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is warning of "real danger" that superhuman intelligence will cause civilization level damage absent smart, speedy intervention, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.

In a 38-page essay, Amodei writes: "I believe we are entering a rite of passage, both turbulent and inevitable, which will test who we are as a species."

"Humanity is about to be handed almost unimaginable power, and it is deeply unclear whether our social, political, and technological systems possess the maturity to wield it."

Among Amodei's warnings in "The Adolescence of Technology":

Massive job loss: "I ... simultaneously think that AI will disrupt 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs over 15 years, while also thinking we may have AI that is more capable than everyone in only 12 years."

AI with nation-state power: "I think the best way to get a handle on the risks of AI is to ask the following question: Suppose a literal 'country of geniuses' were to materialize somewhere in the world in ~2027. Imagine, say, 50 million people, all of whom are much more capable than any Nobel Prize winner, statesman, or technologist. ... I think it should be clear that this is a dangerous situation."

Rising terror threat:"Most individual bad actors are disturbed individuals, so almost by definition their behavior is unpredictable and irrational and it's these bad actors, the unskilled ones, who might have stood to benefit the most from AI making it much easier to kill many people."

Call to action: "[W]ealthy individuals have an obligation to help solve this problem," Amodei says. "It is sad to me that many wealthy individuals (especially in the tech industry) have recently adopted a cynical and nihilistic attitude that philanthropy is inevitably fraudulent or useless."

The bottom line: "Humanity needs to wake up, and this essay is an attempt a possibly futile one, but it's worth trying to jolt people awake."
Axios

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Once Elon and his other billionaire buddies have robots to do everything for them, what do they need us for?