DanForArkansas
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Jul 28, 2026 1:24 AM
DanForArkansas
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RectifierOfTheLame
Get over yourselves.
jalcantara88127001
They can't arrest us all. Burn it all down
BillHubbard
Not just the records of Americans. They try and capture the data of everybody, also the 92% of the population living outside of the US. #AmericanDefaultism
ironman3010
*Actual Tech CEOs:
AnarchySong
Id say sure if surveillance required processing power but it doesn't. You need far less than an AI data center to spy on citizens.
LicensedAdHominem
It does. Facial & gait recognition, datapoint correlation... Why do you act like there's going to be a human watching four billion hours of recordings each day? That's going to be a datacenter's job.
nevergoingtogiveyouupnevergoingtoletyoudown
imgur uses data centers. Imgur is watching you.
heroesblood
Yeah, Palantir isn't gonna be using 16,000 GPUs per building for data storage. I get the reasoning, but no
lonelyrangerofthedreams
Don’t forget to add “…and a total control over information and perception of reality in order to gaslight, propagandize, divide and control the population”
Futuron
I look back at life (and movies) from the '90's and earlier and think about how easy it was to just walk away from everything and everyone. You could easily stay hidden and create a new life and most people would never be able to find you. You have to fall pretty much 100% off the grid which is almost impossible if you want to live a life even partially in the modern world. We have advanced a lot technology-wise, but not all are in the right ways.
HeresYourSauce
I'm sure there's some extra data to be gained from AI, but it seems tiny compared to the GPS trackers most of us carry on our person at all times.
There also isn't the money in surveillance. Not when there are cheaper options. The government doesn't really need it, and advertisers have entire networks of data brokers already.
Honestly I think the buzz over AI and data centers is just an ordinary finical bubble. Tulips weren't a government conspiracy. People were just dumb.
cheidiotou
From the perspective of a scientist that is starting to get into ML, DL, etc. this stuff seems eerily like a misinformation campaign. Once I started learning it and saw the MASSIVE amount of math in the background, the data centers started to actually make sense. Ofc it could still be used for a surveillance state, but storage like the meme says doesn't pass the sniff test. It's is used for training models, etc. So any surveillance state would be more like Minority Report, that kinda thing.
NervousAstronaut
I think you're giving the government way too much credit.
GrimleyGraves
The NSA has been doing this for years, we don't need to make up shit to make data centers look bad.
Jarodamus
Is it a sourceless X post? Yea it was worse.
scrumbles666
So it looks like Dan here lost his run for senate, which is probably for the best because this a dumb as fuck conspiracy bullshit that doesn't fit the reality of AI data centers or mass surveillance states.
Dogstar23
They're gonna build a prison
mcoulter876
Sure wish we had a source cited for this so we could research it ourselves.
2Soon4Baboon
https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1NTFyOHlkaXZwOW1qajZiYnRnNzZxdm5ncDc2Z2N3ZDRsOGZwOGFxcyZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/aVtdz7iNVPI1W/200w.webp
Becker37
So then I guess light them up?
SomeDetroitGuy
No, they absolutely are not. That stuff doesn't actually need giant data centers. It's all very small compared to LLM work. This is one of the stupidest, most ignorant takes since people claiming the moon landing was faked.
Arbitrarynamehere
I try not to spend too much energy on dispelling these conspiracies, because at the end of the day if it radicalizes some people against data centers then that's cool with me, true or not.
Holinyx05
check out this guy! He thinks the moon is real !!! LOL
HeywouldJablowme
But let's give them our land, tax abatements, tax incentives, and hell, we'll even chip in to build the massive buildings so we can have those precious jabs that won't last more than 6 months. We are like slaves. They are using us to build our own cage for ourselves. This is how it's been done since the beginning of time. Humanity doesn't learn, but mostly because we are never taught these things. That's why I conservative take college so much. Because college students are taught these things.
Howlingowl
They are building data centers for AI. They’re not using AI to help you, they’re using AI to spy on you and collect your data.
GreatOdinsTaint
Don't forget the "automate away everyone's jobs to hoard even more wealth" part!
REOJackwagon
When your city wants to build one, get a recording of one, see if you can play it back at the same volume with a portable PA speaker, possibly at an approval meeting or town hall, or just for the city council, etc. Maybe for the local news
Telemapus
I reckon AI is like crypto and something we're going to see more and more of if we survive into the future. It's a tool that was invented before the need for that tool existed. Historically, we humans see problems and think "I bet I could make a tool to fix this problem." The horse collar is the classic example: We had these horses. We knew they were strong. We couldn't use them to blow fields because the yoke didn't work on them. Someone "fixes" the problem by inventing the horse collar /1
Telemapus
Flip ahead to the 2010s. This idea of cryptocurrency comes about. It's a sophisticated technical thing. It's a computer program that does a thing. Do we need that thing? Jury is still out. AI is more obviously useful... maybe. LLMs exist because a bunch of dudes at Google were trying to "fix the problem" of the way your plain language instructions were read into "the computer" one word at a time, which was very slow. They literally had people going through physics and math papers, other people/2
Telemapus
hacking away at existing code systems, others doing other stuff... and then The Transformer 8 came up with the idea of the "transformer" and suddenly you have this insane thing where you ask a computer "Hey should I wear black or blue to my mother's funeral?" and it takes that and compares it to everything ever written ever (that it knows anyway) and builds this 1536 dimension (1024+512, see) probabilistic grid matrix whatnot that then allows it to generate a text response based on the idea /3
Telemapus
"What is the most statistically likely word to come next in this sentence?" That's the core concept right? It's amazing, in many ways. "Frictionless computing". You rock up to Claude and you say "yeah uh so Claude I uh want to like, organise my tax receipts or whatever?" and Claude jumps into doing that, no software knowledge needed on your part. And that's just the start. But... the inefficiency is insane. You ask "is it a nice day" and these LLMs crunch hard math, math that would take a /4
Telemapus
human lifetimes upon lifetimes to do by hand, to come back with "yes. It's a fairly nice day". AND POSSIBLY BE WRONG. Anyway. My point: They cracked a problem about how computers can read your inputs more efficiently and that lead to LLMs and now these companies are desperately trying to find a nail for their super-expensive hammer they invented because they are so clever.
MortimerMango
We already live in a 24/7 digital surveillance state
METROlD
Im looking into installing this on my phone:
https://grapheneos.org/
wejustdontknow
There are a few dirt patches here and there without cameras, still. Barely.
StrokeFlavoured
It will become much, much worse.
Howlingowl
Yes, but now they’re stealing and poisoning your water supply in order to surveil you more efficiently.
my1rstlaptopwas34inchscreenup
yeah but soon, all the data they've collected will be analyzed quickly and they'll get paterns
scrumbles666
They'll get hallucinations and false positives. AI is not better than people, especially as the asks get more and more complex. Surveillance states aren't new, and there us no reason to believe AI is going to create some great tidal shift in the level of access and control except the people pushing AI keep saying it will.
my1rstlaptopwas34inchscreenup
it's not better than people yet... but yeah maybe they really cannot complete a mature ai that learns and thinks for itself. maybe they're lying, and i sure hope they are. thanks for your comment, i was kinda going down a hole thinking about a future with ai as a master. you're making me realize that it's just a possibility
scrumbles666
We are nowhere close to an AI that thinks for itself, and the only people claiming otherwise are the people selling AI and fucking cultists waiting on their own digital rapture to come. I recommend reading Ed Zitron's writing on AI because he's mostly looking at the money, and more than anything that help me understand just how much motivation AI proponents have to lie about this shit.
Layinginbed
My pattern anymore is go to work, come home, then repeat. Not sure what they are gonna do with that information
LordFriteuse
Hey, if you are part of the "I am doing nothing wrong, and therefore I have nothing to be afraid of" do me a favor and look up a poem by a dude called Martin Niemöller.
my1rstlaptopwas34inchscreenup
they'll classify us
Cgt16
Perfect. So if you do that for 10 years and then start occasionally (or even worse, regularly) visiting an area where a number of political dissidents are gathering you can easily flag the system for review.
The nothing to hide scenario is how most people feel. The problem comes in when your normal life becomes a crime against the state. The state can at any time decide to outlaw things that you or your loved ones currently do without issue. At which point you become an enemy of the state.
lackinglife
I think it is for AI, though I wouldn't be surprised at all if they hard pivoted the ai towards surveillance in an attempt to be financially viable. Soon too, as the bubble is getting incredibly precarious as the data centers are running into angry locals who don't want them and the money isn't flowing in anymore in amounts to sustain this massive speculation
Kilo11
The demand for AI services is already being met, everyone who wants to use it is already using it with no issues. Its for AI but AI camera feed filtering and tracking
lackinglife
Actually it has seemed to have been downplayed but there's not a single major AI company operating at a profit. It's entirely sustained by investor cash flow as there hasn't been a single use for it so far that they can charge what they need to.
It's the reason every tech bro is throwing everything at the AI wall, they are desperate for a profitable use. Sooner or later investors are gonna dry up and they are screwed, as it appears to have started.
horsetuna
Thoughts: say it's for AI then when AI fails quietly repurpose it?
I dislike conspiracies but if this is one, this is what I would do
scrumbles666
The stuff they're putting in these new data centers doesn't have much use outside of that purpose. You don't need a bunch of super GPUs that require elaborate cooling rigs and their own power plant to run Big Brother. The data centers boom is just a few rich companies passing money piles around to hide that they're up to their necks in debt over a shitty, nigh-useless product.
horsetuna
Good point
theduckening
The prices for all pc parts exploded at a consumer level. It may go down but it won't go down to former levels. They're pricing you out of owning your own thing to sell you a solution to a problem they created (rental/cloud)
KingdomsCrown
I'm so glad I upgraded before trump became president
Thepumpkinlord247
Rinse and repeat
Exyr
If the bubble collapses theyre gonna be sitting on so much inventory they'll have to practically throw the ram at you
tinydog
Please do.
SavageDrums
The problem is that the ram they're making is useless for anything useful.
KuldFyt
If it's in remotely usable shape after being flogged desperately to extract value during the collapse.
altrdgenetics
Knowing these people... they will shred it all claiming risk of proprietary data and claim whatever loss on their taxes and/or bankruptcy rather than let the masses at it.
CanisDirusTV
You underestimate the power of money. I think they'd rather try to recoup some cost
seriously9
Can’t get a bailout without declaring losses, don’t worry the tax payer will get the CEO his golden parachute.
reurra
It wint pop. They wont let it. They'll keep judging the numbers.
JusticePhrall
The problem is, data center memory and hot rod gaming PC memory are built for two completely different universes with conflicting priorities. We can't use it. :-/
ActionJohnnie
Not the first ram supply fiasco in the history of computer parts
SavageDrums
Three companies make the vast majority of ram, and they have been busted for price fixing more than once.
HeresYourSauce
That sounds like much better conspiracy than surveillance. With all that surplus computer parts from so many different companies. I'm not sure where the profit would be.
The entire video game industry brings in less than 400 billion a year, the consumer computer parts industry is around 150 billion. So far tech companies have spent 2.5 trillion on AI.
That's net worth, not realized profits. It would take years to pay off the networth, and centuries to make an actual return on the investment.
FraudulentPepsi
They planning on money not being a thing soon, and this is the new form of power
HeresYourSauce
That feels like a very extraordinary claim.
I don't see any sign we're even heading towards a no money world. Actually the opposite really.
FraudulentPepsi
That is their plan.
Elon Musk predicts AI will make money irrelevant by 2036, says deflation will replace inflation – Firstpost https://share.google/jaX3KdiAZhdel4OQc
HeresYourSauce
1. Elon Musk is crazy. You could fill books with the crazy things he says. To say nothing else of him. He is absurdly optimistic at times.
2. That article also doesn't say that's his plan, or anyone's plan. It's phrased as a hypothetical, and even then it relies on AI producing more than anyone could need. It's like saying Star Trek says we'll have a money free society in 50 years.
halfabubbleoff
Data centers are also massive amounts of HVAC equipment, structures, electrical and communications wires…
All of this requiring lifting hardware, cranes, construction equipment to dig, level, compact the ground, pour concrete, etc.
So it’ll be more than computer hardware that is impacted.
VosperOfAntarctica
Both are in effect. Bleed you dry and track your every move
HeresYourSauce
Sure. I mean they do want to do those things. I just think that it is a widely ineffective way of making them happen.
my1rstlaptopwas34inchscreenup
what would be effective?
HeresYourSauce
The systems they're already using and pushing.
For surveillance more ads, villainize VPNs, adblockers, or provide Spyware services. "Free" versions of programs.*1
For money, the entirety of capitalism pick your poison. Buying isn't owning, perpetual debt, creating problems to offer solutions.
Dasnekones
They are not. The data center boom happened for purely financial reasons. Be it scammers like openAI who uses the appearance of growth to fool investors or certain rich people who came to believe that AI was an infinite money glitch.
Either way, the idea was that there was a direct correlation between investments in data centers an financial return. Literally the meme of sticking a dollar under the door and getting 2 back so you put in your life savings, expecting to get rich.
theobstruction
What do you think that financial reason is? It's to sell the government the ability to know anything about you. It's to sell the government the ability to spy on you.
Dasnekones
Its really not. Sure, they would like to do that as well but that is a very small piece of the pie.
There are basically two core assumptions being made here. One is that AI can replace the human workforce which is a huge financial drain on a corporation and the other is that AI can "magically" generate value. To simplify the 2nd point, they think that they can just run the program and it will generate money in their bank account.
More AI therefore = More money. The "infinite money glitch"
PabloEscargot
This. The government has been working towards this for years. Advances data storage, cloud computation, and AI are facilitating their success. Society as whole has been really slow to recognize the importance of data privacy. We are also relinquishing our rights at unprecedented rates. The lack of education about rights and privacy is very much intentional.
kittyfajitas
Happy accident.
MisterSixer
Wouldn't they just use those data centers for surveillance data after the AI bubble bursts?
seriously9
Nah they will get the taxpayer to build nuclear power plants with public funds. Short sell their own companies then use the chips in bitcoin farms in their new billionaire corporations funded by the bailouts governments will give them on the way down.
scrumbles666
No, because the super GPUs you need for AI data centers are useless for pretty much anything else. You need data storage for surveillance, not compute. In theory they could repurpose the structures, but you could say the same about an old Walmart.
AeonexAshaxei
Being right on a technicality doesn't refute OP. Especially since there is evidence that the U.S. government has already been mass surveilling their own citizens for well over a decade now. What you are talking about is the purely economic decision making process of certain oligarchs. Remember the bit about it's all a big club and you ain't in it? Yeah, well business and government have merged now. That's what an oligarchy is.
Dasnekones
The whole surveilance state thing is happening in parallel and they do synergize. However, there is a very clear separation in where the money is coming from and how quickly and recklessly the AI boom has been.
That is not a result of government action or a plot for surveilance. That is pure selfish greed from idiots who fell for a pyramid scam and is now pumping in as much money as they physically can.
AeonexAshaxei
Palantir's CEO, Alex Karp, has gone on record in a 22 point manifesto to explicitly state that their AI is intended to streamline mass surveillance, "revitalize America's military industrial complex", and to create a universal national service that determines which culture is superior.
What are you talking about?
Dasnekones
Palantir is a complete nobody in the AI bubble and Palantir is a collection of whackos with very insane ideas which makes them an exception rather than a rule.
scrumbles666
Reality where data centers aren't actually being built, the infrastructure of them is not necessary or usable for surveillance, and every techbro is fucking lying about what AI can do so people keep giving them money. Palantir's CEO is making a sales pitch, not a statement of fact.
Jimthebutler
It can be two things, the us government is absolutely trying to use it for what op is suggesting.
Feralkyn
You don't need multiple massive buildings for storing data like that, though. Computation, yes; storage, no.
Jimthebutler
Isn't woodlawn exactly that type of building?
Feralkyn
No idea what woodlawn is
Jimthebutler
There is a social security building at woodlawn, Maryland storing sensitive data ( presumably social security numbers)
thanatos777
It's not just the government; Flock and Palantir are doing it for their own purposes.
whereismymind86
ehh...the us government mostly cares about selling us stuff too these days. Knowing what i'm doing just lets them sell me more garbage. Most of us are too boring to bother watching and oppressing us.
whereismymind86
not to say they aren't going to do so...it's just not the main focus
Jimthebutler
Bruh he asked congress for funding to go after dissenters.
KarmaciouS
If your naive enough to believe that your government doesn't care about you, you could start by googling "Room 641A", which is a perfect example of how mass surveillance was a thing back then.
Believe it or not, nowadays most of the phones are Android or IOS based, which are 2 american compagnies, and no matter what they say be assured these OS contain backdoors for mass surveillance though every phones' microphones and cameras. US gov will do anything. Anything.
Herefortheboos
Ellison, who pals around with that administration, says that he wants all Americans under surveillance and know it so that we'll all stay compliant
acme64
what? what does the government sell?
iamthemurray
It's definitely a bonus that's for sure even if it's most likely just about money. But I know in Canada they are trying force a lot of companies to save metadata and they specifically say it's for law enforcement.
Jimthebutler
Well they are trying to check peoples phones for anti government sentiment, asking for funding to go after dissenters, giving our personal tax records and social security numbers to private entities like Musk, and calling for the removal of all democrats because they say democrats are terrorists. All while israel pushes to have access to a database of people that have said things against the Israeli government. Sp monitoring is not a huge stretch for their reasoning.
scrumbles666
It is a huge stretch because the infrastructure for AI compute is not necessary or really usable for Big Brother style cameras and data storage. It's like claiming someone is building a nuclear reactor just to run street lights. The math doesn't math, and if you're actually a skeptical person rather than a contrarian, that should ne enough to dismiss a claim as bullshit.