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Thieves Are Now Targeting AI Data Center Construction Sites for Copper and Expensive Equipment (www.vice.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Investigators recovered two stolen trailers carrying $1.3 million in data center supplies, including copper wire and infrastructure equipment.

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[–] 11 points 4 months ago (8 children)

theft is wrong regardless of who the victim is

Who the victim is, is part of what makes it wrong or not. A parent shoplifting baby formula is less wrong than a parent stealing formula from another parent. A dude stealing formula to scalp is worse than the first two. A dude stealing formula from a parent is the worst.

It's really simple math.

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  • [+] -9 points 4 months ago* (7 children)

    There certainly are different levels of criminal severity, and you've outlined that perfectly. But it has absolutely nothing to do with this because they're still stealing from someone. The people who prosecute and sentence the thieves can take those circumstances into account when determining an appropriate punishment.

    Furthermore, you've failed to take your own example to its logical conclusion. The reason people are stealing baby formula in the first place is because it's too expensive. In fact, everything is becoming too expensive. That's a much broader and more serious societal issue than the act of stealing formula itself.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    It's not about criminality. It's comparative morality.

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  • [–] -4 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    You're the first person to actually provide a constructive response to my comment. Thank you.

    But we can definitely examine the comparative morality here. Let's take a moment to consider who the victims actually are when large amounts of materials are stolen, regardless of where that theft occurs.

    The first affected party is obviously the entity that owns the property, in this case the corporation building the data center. We can acknowledge that many people have little sympathy for a massive corporation losing money, and I understand that perspective. However, I still maintain that theft is theft regardless of who the victim is.

    But what about everyone else affected by that theft? What about the construction workers who cannot work because projects are delayed? What about the construction companies that are contracted to complete the work and now have additional costs because of someone else's actions? Why should those people bear the consequences of someone else's crime?

    And what about the thieves themselves? Are we automatically assuming they are morally justified individuals who are taking from the wealthy and redistributing it to those in need? That is not what is happening. These materials are being stolen and sold for personal profit through illegal channels. The people committing the theft are not acting out of some noble principle. They are benefiting themselves at someone else's expense.

    So who exactly are we supporting, and who are we condemning? I do not see any meaningful moral high ground in celebrating theft simply because the victim is a corporation. The entire chain of events, from the theft itself to the people harmed by the consequences, is far more complicated than "rich company loses money, therefore it is good."

    The most frustrating part is that this larger picture is often ignored. People focus only on the corporation taking a financial hit while overlooking everyone else affected by the crime. That is a very short-sighted and incomplete way to evaluate the situation.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    who the victims actually are when large amounts of materials are stolen, regardless of where

    The kind of selective reasoning that would bring the phrase "You shouldn't blow up the death Star! He's your dad!"

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  • [–] -1 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    What? All you did cherry pick a super out of context quote and then say the death star is my dad?

    Reading your comment was like looking at those first generation llm picture renders where your brain can't quite make out what it is so it starts hurting.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    ... Yeah, and AI datacenters being built speculatively is the same resource hoarding bullshit as high formula pricing.

    Also idgaf about laws and crime, I said better and worse, right and wrong. That has nothing to do with legal, because if it did we wouldn't be having these discussions about formula or datacenters, those kind of wealth abuses would actually be illegal.

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