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Protesters break into Microsoft data center site in Amsterdam - Europe is witnessing a wave of protests against data centers. (www.theverge.com)
submitted 14 hours ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
6 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Reuters reports that around 100 people made it into the construction site, with some scaling a crane to place a “fuck AI” banner. Protesters also unfurled a “Microsoft powers genocide” banner on the construction site, and chanted “Microsoft has got to go” and “free Palestine.”

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[–] 44 points 13 hours ago

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    [–] 8 points 13 hours ago

    Good.

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    [–] 7 points 11 hours ago

    Algorithms really got Gen Z to stop spelling "fuck", huh?

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    [+] 1 point 7 hours ago
    [removed by mod]
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    [–] 0 points 13 hours ago

    A banner. Yes! Based... 🙄.

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    [–] -1 points 1 hour ago

    Breaking in isn't protesting.

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    [+] -8 points 12 hours ago

    That's not the best way to do it.

    Let them build > Nationalize the shit

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    46 comments in c/fuck_ai@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 67 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

    Good

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    • [–] 88 points 14 hours ago* (5 children)

    So hey, guys...

    I'm a huge fan of this protest, but climbing the boom of a crane without any safety gear is extremely fucking stupid.

    Get a safety harness before you do this. They're not that expensive. Hell, steal one from the site. But this gets people killed, like yourself.

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  • [–] 17 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

    Looking at the picture I think they may be harnessed.

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    • [–] 33 points 15 hours ago

    This is basic human decency. Well done.

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    [–] 31 points 15 hours ago

    This is fucking amazing.

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    [–] 22 points 16 hours ago

    Nice!

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    [–] 17 points 10 hours ago

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    [–] 13 points 13 hours ago (8 children)

    How sweet will it be with all these idiot companies try to replace us with their shitty llm implementations, which will then have no connection because data centers were destroyed. I yearn for that day.

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  • [–] 12 points 11 hours ago (5 children)

    It's just such a stupid fucking plan too. Like they're absolutely massive and fragile structures that are going to be ridiculously simple for individuals or groups to vandalize or destroy them. Even if they heavily fortify and gaurd the data centers themselves there are so many people opposed and so many, many attack vectors to nullify them that they'd have to boil the frog slowly to actually succeed with their dumbass plan.

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  • [–] 10 points 11 hours ago (4 children)

    Not to mention millions of businesses pointing at them to burn an assload of power with every chatbot request. Massive massive waste.

    Its fucking stupid. We have computer and computer programs for this. We are going backwards. But people are stupid and dont understand the abstract nature of any of that, so they just believe what billionaire owned media tells them which is " get our ai app now or youll be left behind!!!!!!!"

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  • [–] 6 points 10 hours ago

    I think lots of people do understand and many have their hearts in the right place but are being misled by all the billionaire owned media which is almost omnipresent. You and I are a minority freely communicating on an open platform.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

    Consider me left, I missed the train, didn't buy a ticket, never wanted the ticket, didn't want to know about the ticket.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 hours ago (1 child)

    Yeah but we will be the old men yelling at clouds, just like the folks who scoffed when internet came into popularity ("why would I want that, I have a library and books for research. Why would you trust a random internet stranger ? This internet is ruining young peoples brains " etc. All stuff we are saying about ai now) Sadly we will die off and the young will only know slop.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 hours ago

    I know there is some truth to this, as progression is the nature of things, I do have shreds of hope for a more star trek future where they really lean into the positive aspects and eventually the spare collective cognitive ability will be the goal, not money. Wind power if nothing but aesthetic. Geothermal and desalination. Solar farms. I can envision that future. I will not see that future.

    One of the toughest things for me to empathize is how there are so many who simply can not or will not allow themselves to be seed planters, rather than simply forest admirers. How are the blinders so effective to what could be they allow themselves to actively destroy the tiny blue dot.

    Anyway, got a little off topic there. I dont think knowledge scrapers and LLMs are what people claim them to be yet, it's weird witnessing a bubble, it's been weird watching a cult of personality develop and begin desolving.

    I do think we are collectively on a "Grapes of Wrath" precipice. Hopefully it is not humanity itself on the vine.

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    • [–] 12 points 8 hours ago

    YES, HAHAHAHA, YES! RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, BOYS!

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    [–] 11 points 8 hours ago

    Stop building them and people won't break into them, problem solved.

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    [–] 10 points 9 hours ago

    why not just burn it down or sabotage whatever's been built?

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    [–] 9 points 12 hours ago

    Sounds like Amsterdam could use a windfall of bamboo...

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    [–] 6 points 13 hours ago

    Please yes, come with molotovs too.

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    [+] -15 points 11 hours ago* (10 children)

    This is gonna be a baby+bathwater incident.

    People know that datacenters

    • existed before LLMs
    • provide valuable safety and security for important data like health data and bank info and courts evidence
    • don't need to have jet turbines for power or water for cooling if they're planned right

    I worry this is gonna affect DCs and push orgs into shitty basement installations again where power and cooling and security isn't cheap or easy and we're gonna have more physical problems with shit like Nana's prescription or cartel criminal cases.

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  • [–] 10 points 11 hours ago (4 children)

    Yes, won't someone please think of the poor data centers in this trying time.

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  • [+] -7 points 10 hours ago* (3 children)

    Your lemmy instance is hosted in a data center you twat. (Hetzner)

    The irony level of you pissing and moaning about non-ai data centers WHILE USING ONE is off the chart.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 hours ago

    Lol "off the chart"..

    Ppl are pissing and moaning about the egregious and unethical use and rise of data centers. Data centers do not serve the neighborhoods they are built in.

    No one is (probably) seriously arguing for 0 data centers. As all data centers are not equal.

    I guess I should have been more explicit in my flippant comment so as to not harm your opinions.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 hours ago

    Sure, asbestos if giving you cancer, but have you thought of its insulating properties, and to replace damaged asbestos immediately?

    Sure, tetraetillead in fuel exposes us to lead, but have you thought how good of an anti-knocking agent it is, and that you shouldn't live near busy roads?

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  • [–] 3 points 7 hours ago

    Hyperscale GPU "gold rush" data center empire building is not at all the same thing as the types you are talking about. The problem is with the former. The scale. The speed. The arrogance. The damage. The grid instability. The resource theft. The illegal land destruction.

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    • [+] -29 points 16 hours ago (7 children)

    What did that do?

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  • [–] 19 points 16 hours ago (5 children)
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  • [+] -8 points 14 hours ago (4 children)

    Nah, the banners.

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  • [–] 19 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

    It brought attention in the form of articles like this one

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  • [+] -6 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

    I guess.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 hours ago

    Well, it was the number one news story here in the Netherlands. The government also presented a tech strategy today, and so the responsible secretary gave an interview in an important news show tonight. They first showed a report about the protest and then immediately asked her for a response.

    Will it change things? Maybe not directly, but at least the resistance is the topic of conversation now.

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    • 7 comments in c/hackernews@lemmy.bestiver.se view that post
    [–] 5 points 13 hours ago

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    [–] 4 points 15 hours ago (4 children)

    Who wants to go liberate some components?

    I need some mpre storage

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  • [–] 1 point 15 hours ago (3 children)

    It's a bit early for that, but you could take note of the layout for future reference :P

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  • [–] 2 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

    Early? I’m out of storage now tho

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    • [–] 4 points 14 hours ago

    Microsoft consented to the break in, they were asked quite explicitly do you want us to break into your data centre, your options are yes or in two days.

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    1 comment in c/pulse_of_truth@infosec.pub view that post
    [–] 4 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

    Also could someone please give me a link to the transparent version

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