JK but the oceans aren’t really warming up fast enough. Maybe a buttload of gpus may help?
Yupp, I’ve heard that the sea need more help heating up…
Reasonability of the solution aside, Samsung is uniquely positioned to propose such project as one of the largest electronics manufacturer and shipmaker in the world.
It’s slightly less stupid than data centers in space I suppose. But I still find it pretty weird.
You will have to be tethered to land anyway. Properly high bandwidth networking as you would usually see to connect a data center (on the order of a dozen terabits per second) only exists through fiber optic cables. I’m sure of this point, because optical networking is my day-job, though we only run 400 Gbit/s links on the fastest edges since we’re a small national network.
As for power, well there are 80 MW ship engines (e.g. Wärtsilä-Sulzer RT-flex96C, which has even been built in Korea under license before), so it’s not impossible I suppose. But if you are tethered, then the country you’re tethered to will probably forbid you from burning bunker fuel for 80 MW on its coast. At which point you’d be reduced to running clean diesel or something. That I expect would make the power more costly than just tethering to an electric grid
So now we have a big barge rather than a ship. What do you really save then? I guess the price of the land? And you gain access to copious amounts of saltwater, so you can do closed loop cooling with freshwater, and do the secondary heat exchange to the ocean. But you could do that by building on the coast too. Okay I guess you might gain tsunami security over a coastal building.
If this is a real proposal why don’t they tell us the material advantages they expect, rather than making us guess?
Insurance scuttles, here we come
Sovereignty.
Country gets a new hostile government or prsident? Guess we’ll just sail our datacenters somewhere else
Heating up random parts of the ocean, can only good happen!
The amount of heat is going to be negligible for the ocean, especially compared to a permanent structure pumping heat into the ground or a neighborhood. I’m more worried about how they’re powering the things. Probably some fossil fuel.
Hot spots causing updrafts which will be an issue on the ocean. These center produce large amounts of heat. Hot spots causing updrafts which will be an issue on the ocean.
Once we open this box, tons of companies will follow.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/data-centers-temperature-spikes
There have been and are hundreds of thousands of natural underwater volcanoes that create heat far surpassing data centers…
Based on that I would like to know why you think data center heat would have an effect noticeable past those volcanoes.
Volcanoes are natural. They aso create land, enrich soil, and the ash has helped with warming. Most happen underwater which never effect the surface due to how deep they are.
A floating toaster oven will increase over time. The increase heat will create FUCKING UPDRAFTS. Messing with our trade winds and jet stream is a great way to game over.
Also our jet stream has been dipping farther and farther south. Creating more volatile situations.
I am pretty sure you are letting your dislike of data centers cloud your judgement of how large their heat related impact can be.
Relative to the vastness of the oceans a data center is so negligible that I feel you don’t understand the size of the ocean at all.
They would have to build a million data centers, yes, a million (or perhaps even millions, plural) , to have any heat impact which is economically and resource related impossible. For reference, all data centers worldwide on land now count 11k.
Don’t let your personal dislike of something cloud your ability for rational analysis.
What a beautiful coincidence.
I am building ethically sourced, renewable, solar powered torpedoes, and I will not be seeking regulatory approval.
I always kinda wondered how biblical ocean boiling would come about.
The ark had all the hardware, a pair of each. Switches, routers, firewalls, …
A twisted pair
Wait, isn’t this what happened in Snowcrash?
because the ocean warming and inevitable collapse of the gulf stream wasnt happening fast enough, apparently.
And less tax and worker protection laws in international waters.
Data centers arent big on the job creation front to begin with. Once they are built its basically a security guy for show, and a tech that flies in once a fortnight to deal with the odd, occasional issue.
a floating datacenter would probably have even less jobs, since they probably wont need the security guard to keep the punk kids away anymore.
Yes, however the ship itself will need maintenance and operators, and can be flagged in whatever country of convenience that offers the best ability to pay the least. No property taxes, far fewer environmental rules, free water, etc.
Terrible article. Does not answer the “why” question. What is the advantage? All it says is that “Seasides can ease the pains of giant mainland AI date centers”. Is it just skirting around taxes and rules, like a floating casino? The ship would have a shoreside power connection or power itself as well apparently. Would the ships generators be subject to the same emission requirements as shoreside plants?
Seems like just a floating barge that will not really be out at sea, just sitting in protected bays or up waterways. Cooling water, would have to use a closed circuit freshwater system with heat exchangers cooling it with saltwater. That would consume less water than the evaporation cooling method, but still is not listed a possible reason.
Ships are expensive. What is the reason for floating a data center? Cheaper than land near big cities? Less regulations? Less taxes? Cooling water? Cheaper electricity?
They’re doing it to grab the headlines away from Solar Roadways!!
Some large companies have been experimenting with underwater data centres for years. i remember reading about a microsoft one like 10 years ago.
Yeah but those were not on ships.
Ironic, considering AI is built on piracy
Im somewhat surprised nobody has mentioned how corrosive salt water is. This likely would have to be some platform like an oil rig with power and internet via cables. So why not buy Sealand and build it out? Still lots oft Saltwater in the Wind and offshore but no need to have it floating around in rough waters.
The nation of Sealand cannot be bought!
Cheaper to build and maintain probably. You can dock a ship for a while but you need to bring manpower to a platform
Makes sense. Leaves our potable water alone and keeps the fuckers out of sight. They could even put in wind turbines to power the fucking things.
The warming of the water is likely an issue for marine life and ecosystems
The water is being warmed by burning hydrocarbons which emit massive quantities of CO and CO2 which in turn hold in the sun’s heat which in turn causes the oceans to heat up dangerously. Not to mention CO2 is an acidic gas which wreaks havoc on marine life and land life.
The amount of heat instilled in the oceans from this type operation is negligible.
Yeah I disagree with this sentiment, “things are already bad so this new level of bad is negligible”
Yeah sure a single instance but how quickly will it ramp up? What are the local consequences of it? See UV suncream bleaching the barrier reef for examples on how we can destroy nature simply by being present in it.
You are excusing something that is not necessary, to the detriment of habitats, biomes and ourselves.
You don’t sound like you physics very often. Sorry. I can’t fight gut feelings with facts. I’ve tried. It doesn’t work.
Poseidon plz 🥺
I’ve seen pictures of data centers with parking lots full of cars. Are they going to ferry people to and from work each shift?
Probably like an oil rig rotation. You live and work for a contracted period of time on the boat, then you cycle off with someone else every few months or so.
That makes sense, but it’s also incredibly unappealing.
People on oil rigs aren’t necessarily the most skilled in their field. They still make well above median income because they put up with shit like this. Im sure something similar would develop. Would you sign up for a 12 week contract if it paid $60k?
