▲ 693 ▼ AI data centers face increasing complaints about inaudible but 'felt' infrasound — citizens complain high- and low-frequency sounds do not register on decibel meters but cause adverse health effects (www.tomshardware.com) submitted 2 months ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/technology@lemmy.world 144 comments fedilink hide all child comments
[–] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 32 points 2 months ago (4 children) I remember when people complained about sound coming from wind turbines. That was bad This? Good permalink fedilink source hideshow 8 child comments replies: [–] sup@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 months ago Just looked up, a windturbine has less infrasound then cars. (german Source) I would guess the datacenter could have more infrasound and thus be a bigger problem. They mention a study about windturbine infrasound and they point towards nocebo effect, but maybe windturbines are at a border where the health effects are very difficult to measure. So maybe studies about the infrasound of datacenters could find something. On the other hand, datacenters bring a lot more pollution factors, like light-, air- and waterpollution. permalink fedilink source parent [+] badgermurphy@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago* [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent [–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 2 months ago (1 child) I dislike hypocrisy as much as the next person. So I feel where you're coming from. At the same time, the wind turbines are generating power that everyone benefits from, whereas these things are consuming power for a product that very few people actually like or even want to exist. So I think its fair to say that maybe the noise is tolerable when you're getting something you actually want out of it. Also, wind farms are usually built further away from large population centers, whereas data centers are because it's cheaper to build them in areas with lots of people around. So the concern does seem a little more irrelevant to wind farming as a whole than data centers. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] wabasso@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago (1 child) Just out of curiosity, what makes them cheaper to build in populated areas? Doesn’t that mean the land value is higher when purchasing/leasing the site? permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 2 months ago* (1 child) The article alludes to it: "The United States does not lack flat, open land away from population centers on which to build data centers. However, AI hyperscalers prefer to locate their campuses near existing infrastructure so they don’t have to spend massive amounts of time and resources building everything from scratch." It costs a lotta money to run electricity and water to the middle of nowhere. Also, companies are doing research to specifically build in areas where they believe the local community is not politically empowered to prevent it from being built. This guy goes into some more depth at this timestamp: https://youtu.be/1CpVmPh3BDE?t=831 permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] wabasso@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago (1 child) Fascinating thank you. Brings me back to ArcMap training days. I wonder if they have some data layer for “local population acceptance factor”. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 1 point 2 months ago I'm sure they do. Probably using an AI model to calculate it tbh permalink fedilink source parent [–] echodot@feddit.uk 5 points 2 months ago There's a wind farm near my house and I suppose they do make sound although the only time I was ever able to hear it was during the height of the lockdowns because there's a massive highway between me and them and that's definitely louder. They definitely don't produce infrared sound though, but way too big and the blades move way too slowly. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] sup@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 months ago Just looked up, a windturbine has less infrasound then cars. (german Source) I would guess the datacenter could have more infrasound and thus be a bigger problem. They mention a study about windturbine infrasound and they point towards nocebo effect, but maybe windturbines are at a border where the health effects are very difficult to measure. So maybe studies about the infrasound of datacenters could find something. On the other hand, datacenters bring a lot more pollution factors, like light-, air- and waterpollution. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 2 months ago (1 child) I dislike hypocrisy as much as the next person. So I feel where you're coming from. At the same time, the wind turbines are generating power that everyone benefits from, whereas these things are consuming power for a product that very few people actually like or even want to exist. So I think its fair to say that maybe the noise is tolerable when you're getting something you actually want out of it. Also, wind farms are usually built further away from large population centers, whereas data centers are because it's cheaper to build them in areas with lots of people around. So the concern does seem a little more irrelevant to wind farming as a whole than data centers. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] wabasso@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago (1 child) Just out of curiosity, what makes them cheaper to build in populated areas? Doesn’t that mean the land value is higher when purchasing/leasing the site? permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 2 months ago* (1 child) The article alludes to it: "The United States does not lack flat, open land away from population centers on which to build data centers. However, AI hyperscalers prefer to locate their campuses near existing infrastructure so they don’t have to spend massive amounts of time and resources building everything from scratch." It costs a lotta money to run electricity and water to the middle of nowhere. Also, companies are doing research to specifically build in areas where they believe the local community is not politically empowered to prevent it from being built. This guy goes into some more depth at this timestamp: https://youtu.be/1CpVmPh3BDE?t=831 permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] wabasso@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago (1 child) Fascinating thank you. Brings me back to ArcMap training days. I wonder if they have some data layer for “local population acceptance factor”. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 1 point 2 months ago I'm sure they do. Probably using an AI model to calculate it tbh permalink fedilink source parent
[–] wabasso@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago (1 child) Just out of curiosity, what makes them cheaper to build in populated areas? Doesn’t that mean the land value is higher when purchasing/leasing the site? permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 2 months ago* (1 child) The article alludes to it: "The United States does not lack flat, open land away from population centers on which to build data centers. However, AI hyperscalers prefer to locate their campuses near existing infrastructure so they don’t have to spend massive amounts of time and resources building everything from scratch." It costs a lotta money to run electricity and water to the middle of nowhere. Also, companies are doing research to specifically build in areas where they believe the local community is not politically empowered to prevent it from being built. This guy goes into some more depth at this timestamp: https://youtu.be/1CpVmPh3BDE?t=831 permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] wabasso@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago (1 child) Fascinating thank you. Brings me back to ArcMap training days. I wonder if they have some data layer for “local population acceptance factor”. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 1 point 2 months ago I'm sure they do. Probably using an AI model to calculate it tbh permalink fedilink source parent
[–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 2 months ago* (1 child) The article alludes to it: "The United States does not lack flat, open land away from population centers on which to build data centers. However, AI hyperscalers prefer to locate their campuses near existing infrastructure so they don’t have to spend massive amounts of time and resources building everything from scratch." It costs a lotta money to run electricity and water to the middle of nowhere. Also, companies are doing research to specifically build in areas where they believe the local community is not politically empowered to prevent it from being built. This guy goes into some more depth at this timestamp: https://youtu.be/1CpVmPh3BDE?t=831 permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] wabasso@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago (1 child) Fascinating thank you. Brings me back to ArcMap training days. I wonder if they have some data layer for “local population acceptance factor”. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 1 point 2 months ago I'm sure they do. Probably using an AI model to calculate it tbh permalink fedilink source parent
[–] wabasso@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago (1 child) Fascinating thank you. Brings me back to ArcMap training days. I wonder if they have some data layer for “local population acceptance factor”. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 1 point 2 months ago I'm sure they do. Probably using an AI model to calculate it tbh permalink fedilink source parent
[–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 1 point 2 months ago I'm sure they do. Probably using an AI model to calculate it tbh permalink fedilink source parent
[–] echodot@feddit.uk 5 points 2 months ago There's a wind farm near my house and I suppose they do make sound although the only time I was ever able to hear it was during the height of the lockdowns because there's a massive highway between me and them and that's definitely louder. They definitely don't produce infrared sound though, but way too big and the blades move way too slowly. permalink fedilink source parent