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Good Friday Morning! Except for book publishers targeting a Democratic audience this year. It’s a brutal row with Kamala Harris entering the fray, with a memoir called 107 Days. Kirsten Fleming writes, “They say history is written by the victors. But, following Hillary Clinton’s template, presidential loser Kamala Harris is giving the world her take – whether it’s wanted or not.”
The book, combined with Harris’s leaving the California Governor’s race, means she’s going all in on the 2028 presidential race. She’ll have more name recognition than anyone and occupy the pole position. I could easily see her winning the primary like Biden, by default. And I could also see her dropping out before Iowa again.
Harris won’t be alone with a new book. Cory Booker, John Fetterman, and John Manchin are right there, too. More will join the fray. The Democratic Party is leaderless, and everyone is jockeying for position.
This week, I’m touching on how AI is reshaping the real world, and hitting your bills – links to follow.
Quick Hits:
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Where you can find me this week
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Sydney Sweeney Pulls A Reverse Bud Light – Conservative Institute
Democrats Deny Reality Regarding Israel – Conservative Institute
Impeach And Remove Obama’s Imperial Judiciary – Conservative Institute
How AI is reshaping the physical world
NVIDIA, currently the most valuable company in the world, has a market cap of around $4.37 trillion. Germany’s GDP is an estimated $4.75 trillion. NVIDIA’s chips are driving the AI revolution, and everything is falling in place behind them.
But AI is not just things like chatbots and other tools. It’s having a very real impact on the real world, and not just in how people interact with it.
I was reading some analysis on spending in the AI space, and according to US GDP data, spending on AI capital expenditures added more to the overall US GDP growth this past quarter than consumer spending. And that’s wild because U.S. consumer spending makes up 70% of the overall economy.
And this is just spending on AI in terms of hardware and software. Spending on the employees to drive this AI craze is equally crazy. There are multiple stories out there of Mark Zuckerberg luring AI employees away for as much as $1 billion.
But the big spending isn’t happening just on capex and employees. The most essential part of all this is energy. If you’ve noticed electricity prices creeping up, it’s not your imagination.
From basically 2008 to 2021, U.S. annual electricity demand was flat. It had grown for years before that. But demand flattened out as more energy-saving technology items entered the market. Since then, energy consumption has climbed every year, hitting all-time highs in American history just this past year.
This is true not just in the United States, but also abroad:
Demand for electricity in the U.S. will grow by 2.3% this year, more than double the average annual growth rate over the last decade, according to the International Energy Agency.
Data centers are the primary driver of that growth, and their voracious need for power, combined with rising natural gas prices, means more power plants are switching from gas back to coal.
Still, the hotbed of electricity expansion remains China, which will account for more than 50% of global growth this year. But because of the rapid rise of renewables there, the IEA forecasts that by either the end of this year or early next, renewables will outpace coal in the global power generation mix. That means global power-sector emissions are expected to plateau this year and begin to gradually fall next year.
As an example of how short these AI-data centers are on energy, Elon Musk bought and has been running 35 massive generators in the parking lot of his Memphis location. It’s gotten him in trouble with the city because he hasn’t gotten permission to do something like that.
Microsoft is working to build its own nuclear plants.
U.S. companies are leaning hard into nuclear power, while China is trying to match American AI by relying on coal. In the meantime, the electricity costs are rising for everyone.
We’re in an AI-race with China, which is morphing into an energy war. This is why Europe is woefully behind. They can’t run HVAC units or anything else with their grids. China is responding by wrecking its environment and burning coal like there is no tomorrow.
The more energy your country can crank out, at affordable levels, the more AI development you can do.
So, AI is dragging the stock market up, and it’s jacking up utility costs on everyone. Also, it is a major geopolitical point of contention. Rare earth minerals play into this, too, which is why Trump keeps punting on a deal with China.
I have no idea how this is going to all resolve. But even if you don’t use AI in any way, it is impacting you. It’s raising electricity costs, creating new data centers, and ramping up geopolitical competition.
We’re only a few years into the AI revolution, and it is spreading everywhere. We’re going to hit 2030 and see a world far more different than 2020, which is astonishing to consider.
There’s no stopping, either. The U.S. and China are competing on many fronts. But the fights over energy, and AI will dominate the future.
Links of the week
After alleged Clinton Russia ruse was intercepted by US intel, Biden took first shot smearing Trump – Just The News
Another Major Document Release: The long-awaited classified annex to Special Counsel John Durham’s report is out – Matt Taibbi
Activists delete illegal immigrant GoFundMe after learning he’s wanted for murder – Breitbart
Democrats Should Give Up on #Resistance 2.0: It hasn’t worked and it won’t work. – The Liberal Patriot
Longtime Biden aide testifies he stood to earn up to $8M had president won re-election – Fox News
The White House is expanding and adding a ballroom – White House
X/Twitter Thread(s) of the week
Bridget Phetasy on the Sydney Sweeney meltdown.
Satire of the week
Great Clips Introduces New Buy One, Get One To Fix Haircut They Messed Up – Onion
Congress Invites Ghislaine Maxwell To Come Testify Under Dangling Grand Piano – Babylon Bee
QUIZ: Are You a Hypochondriac or Is It the One Time It’s for Real? – Reductress
Pentagon renames Fort Huachuca to Fort Hawk Tua – Duffel Blog
Nihilist Doctor Recommends More Sleep So Your Meaningless Life Goes By Faster – The Hard Times
Opinion: Donkey Kong Country Will Never Move Past Its Floating Barrel-Based Transit System if We Don’t Invest in Infrastructure – The Hard Drive
Tabloid Reluctantly Publishes 1000th Bonnie Blue Story Of The Day – Waterford Whispers News