Ep 323 - Chatbots Aren't Therapists

The thing about data

centers is everybody keeps talking about, oh, you know that everything runs on data centers? And I'm like, look, a server farm could technically be characterized as a data center, but you and I both know what we mean when we say that term.

Hyperscale data centers used for generative AI are a completely different class of building.

Yes.

And that's why I do think before we get into the show, it would be good to discuss them a little bit because there is a major contradiction in the labor movement around data centers right now because...

There's huge grassroots working class, just, I mean, some might deploy the term populist, you know, outcry, backlash against the massive number of these data centers that are cropping up everywhere.

And for good reason, a whole bunch of good reasons.

We're going to go into excruciating detail on some of those reasons in the series that I'm working on.

Four episodes done now, by the way.

Yeah, I've actually gone through some of the scripts and they are fantastic.

Y'all are going to learn some amazing shit.

But anyways, this is an area where there's, I saw recently something like 75% of Americans would oppose the development of a data center anywhere near where they live, which is a good position for 75% of Americans to be on.

However...

What folks may also have seen, or even it's been kind of alluded to in some of the little blurbs at the end of the headlines where we do kind of a state of the economy, data centers are just about the only thing being physically built in the United States right now.

We don't really build other things.

Oh, dollar generals.

I think most of the dollar generals are being opened in stores that used to be other stores, though.

I don't think a lot of them are built from the ground up.

Um, so I just don't know how many, how many of the construction trades are being employed in the construction of dollar generals.

I don't think it's particularly.

The other

thing about dollar generals is that even if you built a thousand dollar generals a year, it wouldn't create that many jobs because they go up so fucking quick.

Well, yeah.

But anyway, so no, but like if you, you know, obviously we've talked about the incredibly distorted state of the economy where something like 60% of capital investment in the country over the past couple of years has been in some way, shape or form related to AI.

And the largest physical manifestation of that is data centers.

The thing about data

centers is everybody keeps talking about, oh, you know that everything runs on data centers? And I'm like, look, a server farm could technically be characterized as a data center, but you and I both know what we mean when we say that term.

Hyperscale data centers used for generative AI are a completely different class of building.

Yes.

And that's why I do think before we get into the show, it would be good to discuss them a little bit because there is a major contradiction in the labor movement around data centers right now because...

There's huge grassroots working class, just, I mean, some might deploy the term populist, you know, outcry, backlash against the massive number of these data centers that are cropping up everywhere.

And for good reason, a whole bunch of good reasons.

We're going to go into excruciating detail on some of those reasons in the series that I'm working on.

Four episodes done now, by the way.

Yeah, I've actually gone through some of the scripts and they are fantastic.

Y'all are going to learn some amazing shit.

But anyways, this is an area where there's, I saw recently something like 75% of Americans would oppose the development of a data center anywhere near where they live, which is a good position for 75% of Americans to be on.

However...

What folks may also have seen, or even it's been kind of alluded to in some of the little blurbs at the end of the headlines where we do kind of a state of the economy, data centers are just about the only thing being physically built in the United States right now.

We don't really build other things.

Oh, dollar generals.

I think most of the dollar generals are being opened in stores that used to be other stores, though.

I don't think a lot of them are built from the ground up.

Um, so I just don't know how many, how many of the construction trades are being employed in the construction of dollar generals.

I don't think it's particularly.

The other

thing about dollar generals is that even if you built a thousand dollar generals a year, it wouldn't create that many jobs because they go up so fucking quick.

Well, yeah.

But anyway, so no, but like if you, you know, obviously we've talked about the incredibly distorted state of the economy where something like 60% of capital investment in the country over the past couple of years has been in some way, shape or form related to AI.

And the largest physical manifestation of that is data centers.