According to Billy Finn, the noise is actually getting louder. He's been tracking the decibel levels on Louise Avenue since 2022, when Hyperscale Data began operating. Back then, the sound level was around 52 decibels. Today, they're typically around 61 decibels, and sometimes go as high as 78 decibels, he told the paper.

Inside his house, it goes down to 39 decibels, which is about the level of a quiet office or library, according to the American Academy of Audiology. But it jumps to 62 decibels when he opens the door, sounding a bit like a passenger jet taxiing on the runway in the distance.

And that's 24/7/365.

Remember that the next time you "ask ChatGPT" instead of making a web search.

Burninator05@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 48d (4 replies)

...sounding a bit like a passenger jet taxiing on the runway in the distance.

That could be because they use turbine generators for power when/if the local grid can't support what they want. The major difference between the turbines used in aircraft and the ones for datacenters is the load. Giant fans for planes, generators for datacenters.

Please ignore the obvious onesidedness of the link below. Its there to show I'm not making this ip. It's shitty that this is allowed and they aim to siphon off as much money as they can.

https://www.greengasturbines.com/blog/gas-turbines-for-data-centers-hyperscaler-power

wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 9 pts · 48d (2 replies)

"green" gas turbines, what the fuck?

Mmm, nice clean diesel 🥴

Dultas@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 47d (1 reply)

There was also the article about the millionaire (billionaire?) that got their private plane to be taxed as green. IIRC

wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 47d

I think it's a whole company. They got "private jets" listed as "green transportation."

Words are fucking meaningless these days.

douglasg14b@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 48d

Which is illegal according to EPA regulations, last I knew.

Yeah, here we are.

wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 48d (3 replies)

He must have a well-insulated house if opening and closing the door makes a 23 decibel difference.

Too bad he can't open his windows, though. Or enjoy his yard.

Can't wait for the backlash to tear these datacenters down, or the economic cliff to shut down their operations.

ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de · 3 pts · 48d (2 replies)

Not at the range of things under 70 decibels.

Decibel scale is logarithmic, so down at around the 60 level, the difference between 30 and 60 is basically the difference between a normal conversation and someone whispering.

wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 48d (1 reply)

Maybe I just lived in a poorly insulated house, because I swear I could hear outside as plainly with the windows closed as if they were open.

It was an old house, mind. Also drafty...

ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 48d

Lol. Yeah. It may have been that one. Some single pane windows from 50 years ago.

boonhet@sopuli.xyz · -16 pts · 48d (10 replies)

Are you under the impression that a web search does not use data centers?

Google in particular has a lot of infra to support their search, which actually used to be good

expr@programming.dev · 22 pts · 48d (2 replies)

It doesn't need nearly as many. AI inference is orders of magnitude more expensive than a single search query (ignoring the fact that Google does it's own inference with search queries now). And that doesn't even include training, which is stupidly expensive to do.

boonhet@sopuli.xyz · -7 pts · 48d (1 reply)

Sure. But let's not pretend Web search is innocent here. Wanna be eco friendly, walk to your local library.

anas@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 48d

Using this a lot lately, huh

Don_alForno@feddit.org · 18 pts · 48d (1 reply)

It does not use AI data centers. Those are not remotely on the same scale as what we called a data center before this LLM hype started. This infrastructure will not have another use once the bubble pops.

boonhet@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 48d

It was said that one was built in 2022. That's long before they started doing gigawatt scale bullshit.

cley_faye@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 48d (2 replies)

There is a difference between using X amount of resource to provide an actual output that justify spending X amount of resource, and using X*1000 resources to provide zilch.

boonhet@sopuli.xyz · -2 pts · 48d (1 reply)

Citation on it being zilch because they do a fair bit of actually useful work these days while the search engines mostly seem to be going downhill (Kagi being an exception)

cley_faye@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 47d

Search engine going downhill is mostly a side effect of AI enshitification getting in the way. Even google, which people keep saying is "dying", works as well as before as long as you're not using their default page which is filled with AI garbage and other automated content.

Also, Large AI models from large provider doing a fair bit of actually useful work would have to be confronted with other way to do said work. People burning tokens to edit PDF isn't exactly that efficient compared to opening a god dawn editor.

TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com · 7 pts · 48d

derail

TrippingBalls@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 47d

Government propaganda making people think it's AI chat bots why all these data centers are being built

They are to process the enormous amounts of data the government, flock and the rest are gathering to monitor citizens

anon_8675309@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 48d

Judging by some comments the pro data center propaganda is working.

mojofrododojo@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 48d

wish every fucking AI fanboy on this goddamned planet had to endure this shit

ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net · 24 pts · 48d

gibmiser@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 48d (1 reply)

I think it would be 100% justified for this guy to firebombed the data center after a week if they don't fix it. They are assaulting his domicile. Stand your ground man

explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 48d

That's generous. Treat it like a raging house party. The police ask you nicely, once, within hours.

Their profits aren't anyone else's problem.

atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works · 20 pts · 48d (8 replies)

They’re worried the sound drove down the price of their home, but they didn’t join the lawsuit… I’m officially confused.

Doing something that lowers the value of somebody’s house is usually a pretty slam dunk way for that person to be able to sue you. The article doesn’t mention if they have some sort of weird attachment to the house, but otherwise why wouldn’t you just wanna take the money and move somewhere else in the same town or otherwise? Especially if it’s already been four fucking years.

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 48d (4 replies)

They probably have more to gain in individual action than class action

atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works · -1 pts · 48d (3 replies)

Joining a lawsuit like that wouldn’t automatically make it class action.

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 48d (2 replies)

I'm not a class action law person, but I would think having that large a group of people harmed could qualify for lawsuit consolidation under a class action, assuming they could appropriately define the class.

atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 48d (1 reply)

I am also not an expert in this area, however AFAIK being capable of being class action doesn’t make it class action. The Sandy Hook families sued Alex Jones and the number of plaintiffs didn’t make that class action either. As well, in Oklahoma right now there are 100s of similar cases against State Farm regarding hail damage payouts and despite intervention from the state AG these have not become a class action. From the information we do have at least one household invited at least one other household to join a lawsuit and they declined, beyond that we don’t know that there are even other plaintiffs to begin with.

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 48d

yeah, the scenario i'm thinking of is that they have a few ten thousands lawsuits in that area alone and the respondent (whoever owns the datacenter) registers to have all those lawsuits consolidated. i could swear i've heard of it happening but again, not an area of law i've so much as been adjacent to.

chiliedogg@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 48d

They probably have a stronger claim and higher-ceiling on their portion of any judgment suing individually.

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 47d (1 reply)

that is why nimbyism exists. these Ai datacenters are built in places where the locals arnt rich enough to block the construction.

anonymouse2@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 47d

It may play a role in nimbyism persisting, but it's not why it exists.

phoenixz@lemmy.ca · 15 pts · 48d (1 reply)

I always knew datacenters were energy hogs and general badly designed environment wise, but this seems it's just doing it because who is going to stop them? The neighbors? Fuck them, apparently

TrippingBalls@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 47d

You know why they do it?

Because they can

marzhall@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 48d

Damn, I honestly thought this was an onion post at first.

pomegranatefern@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 48d

A screencap of an AI overview summarizing this article at the top of the text

I hate this timeline.

But also, direct link to the article here.

BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 48d (1 reply)

So the real world benefits to these this is turning electricity into heat and noise.

Neat. Are we at least using them against our enemies?

jamin@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 48d

they are. its always the rich vs. the poor

Hupf@feddit.org · 5 pts · 47d

https://gunshowcomic.com/513

Mwa@thelemmy.club · 4 pts · 48d (1 reply)

I bet it's a ai datacenter

Bryan@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 47d

it is!

Marija@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 48d

They should respect nearby communities!

iopq@lemmy.world · -91 pts · 48d (24 replies)

60dB is quite tame, just measured my AC and it's 55dB. Try closing the window?

BestBouclettes@jlai.lu · 35 pts · 48d (2 replies)

I think the issue with most datacenters is the frequency, not necessarily the noise level. A low hum that permeates everything, even if it's not "loud" can become debilitating.

ITGuyLevi@programming.dev · 3 pts · 48d

They should make fun noises at the data center. I don't like the thought Rhythm Nation or whatever was the only song that can break hard drives, try with everything until the hum stops (or at least sounds more expensive).

If they can hum at us, we should be able to hum back.

iopq@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 46d

I agree that the frequency is very important, if it's a loud hum it's a loud easier in the ears

stoy@lemmy.zip · 32 pts · 48d (9 replies)

Wow, you have no idea of how decibel works do you?

The decibel scale is not linear, it is logarithmic.

The power of a sound at 60dB is about 3 times that of a sound at 55dB.

[EDIT]

Corrected my estimate based on correct data in the comments.

lyktstolpe@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 48d (1 reply)

Apparently you have no idea either. 60dB is almost double from 55dB, not 5x. If you account for ear perception it's close to 1.5x.

stoy@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 47d

I have updated my comment, with correct data, you are still wrong, but less wrong. As 60dB is about 3 times louder than 55dB.

I am sorry for the confusion.

ooterness@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 48d (1 reply)

A difference of 5dB is a factor of 3.1x. (i.e., Square root of 10.)

stoy@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 48d

Ah, that is what I missed!

magnue@lemmy.world · -6 pts · 48d (4 replies)

5 times? Stop speaking out of your arse.

stoy@lemmy.zip · -1 pts · 48d (3 replies)

Look up what logarithmic means next time

magnue@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 48d (2 replies)

I know exactly what logarithmic means. Saying it's a 5x increase is factually incorrect.

stoy@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 47d

I have since updated my comment with actually helpful comments, for future reference, if you complain about someone being wrong, it is quite helpful to include the change you wish to make and why it should be made.

CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 48d

Technically correct because we haven't solved for x yet.

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 27 pts · 48d (1 reply)

Decibels are a logarithmic scale. Each step is an increase by a power of ten.

So the difference between 55 and 60 is far larger than it it would initially seem

iopq@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 46d

But we don't perceive a doubling as a doubling

anon_8675309@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 48d (2 replies)

Where does lemmy find these people!?

A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip · 11 pts · 48d

Reddit?

cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 48d

I don't think Lemmy finds people, but people find Lemmy 🤣

BassTurd@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 48d (2 replies)

60dB is like a constant conversation happening by your ear, non stop, and at a constant shrill frequency. A person shouldn't have to significantly alter their lifestyle to accommodate a blight on humanity that's also destroying the environment.

iopq@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 46d (1 reply)

If I open the window right now I can get loud cars all the time and nobody wants to ban that

BassTurd@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 46d

Do you have a constant stream of cars driving by your window 24 hours a day? If you did, maybe you'd feel different. Also, lots of people do want to ban not just loud cars, but all cars. I hate loud cars and trucks. If I'm inside and hear a loud diesel truck with straight pipes and aftermarket loud exhaust, it pisses me off. I absolutely think that shit should be illegal, and I'm certainly not alone.

All of that aside, these people lived where they live before the DCs got built and now their lives are negatively affected because of it. The DCs should have to make every concession to not negatively affect residents. If that means spending billions more on technology to block noise, close loop cooling systems, and prevent localized increases in air temperature, then they should have to do that. If they can't, then they don't deserve to exist. The life and comfort of any individual citizen is more important in every way over the existence of any AI data center.

frongt@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 48d

Why should I have to keep my windows closed to dull the constant noise?

RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 48d (1 reply)

....why the hell is your AC screeching, though? You should fix that immediately it's not normal.

iopq@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 46d

I put it to full fan speed to increase energy efficiency

username_1@discuss.tchncs.de · -95 pts · 48d (6 replies)

Neighbours do that for thousands of years. Data centers are at least somewhat useful...

AmyAye@nord.pub · 19 pts · 48d

Data centers are useful.

Massive AI data centers are not.

WereCat@lemmy.world · -11 pts · 48d (4 replies)

Free heating in the winter to give an example… but I guess this is unheard off

edit: Looking at the downvotes I must say that I am not sure if it's because you missed the sarcasm, missed the bad pun or if you got it all but just hate it. I need more feedback.

xthexder@l.sw0.com · 4 pts · 48d (1 reply)

Sarcasm or not, the people dealing with localized datacenter heating during already hot weather don't find it funny.

"AI datacenter are creating “heat islands,” warming the land around them by up to 16 degrees Fahrenheit, and making life hotter for more than 340 million people. "

WereCat@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 48d

Why are you sending link? That’s what i’m talking about obviously, lol

ooterness@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 48d (1 reply)

Also free heating in summer, whether you want it or not.

WereCat@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 48d

Well yes, that's what I've implied