Data Vampires: Sacrificing for AI (Episode 3)

Sam Altman is clear: he’s ready to sacrifice anything for his AI fantasies. But are we? We dig into why generative AI has such extreme energy demands and how major tech companies are trying to rewrite climate accounting rules to cover how much their emissions are rising. AI isn’t just churning out visual slop; it’s also being used to transform how our society works and further reduce people’s power over their lives. It’s a disaster any way you look at it. This is episode 3 of Data Vampires, a special four-part series from Tech Won’t Save Us.

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• Hugging Face Climate Lead Sasha Luccioni, Associate Professor in Economics Cecilia Rikap, former head of the Center for Applied Data Ethics Ali Alkhatib, Goldsmiths University lecturer Dan McQuillan, and Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute Alex Hanna were interviewed for this episode.
• Interviews with Sam Altman and Brad Smith were cited.

• The SpaceX IPO Gives Elon Musk Even More Power w/ Sean O’Kane
• Do Chatbots Really Belong in Schools? w/ Tom Mullaney
• Data Centers Are a Climate Enemy w/ Ketan Joshi
• Smart Glasses Are Ushering In An Anti-Social World w/ Chris Gilliard