March 12 2024
Power surge
1 AI boom will prompt massive electricity use
2 Ransom payments for cyberattacks have increased 29,900% since 2018
3 Chinese exports surge, prompting global backlash
4 With violence rising, Haitian PM resigns
5 Chinese national indicted for allegedly transferring Google AI secrets to CCP
3/12/1933 FDR broadcasts first ‘fireside chat’ during the Great Depression
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1 AI boom will prompt massive electricity use
“if Google were to integrate generative A.I. into every search, its electricity use would rise to something like twenty-nine billion kilowatt-hours per year. This is more than is consumed by many countries, including Kenya, Guatemala, and Croatia”
Alex de Vries put together what he called the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, and posted it on Digiconomist. According to the index’s latest figures, bitcoin mining now consumes a hundred and forty-five billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, which is more than is used by the entire nation of the Netherlands, and producing that electricity results in eighty-one million tons of CO2, which is more than the annual emissions of a nation like Morocco. De Vries subsequently began to track the electronic waste produced by bitcoin mining—an iPhone’s worth for every transaction—and its water use—which is something like two trillion liters per year. (The water goes toward cooling the servers used in mining, and the e-waste is produced by servers that have become out of date.) Last year, de Vries became concerned about another energy hog: A.I. “I saw that it has a similar capability, and also the potential to have a similar growth trajectory in the coming years, and I felt immediately prompted to make sure people are aware that this is also energy-intensive technology,” he explained. He added a new tab to his blog: “AI sustainability.” In a paper he published last fall, in Joule, a journal devoted to sustainable energy, de Vries, who now works for the Netherlands’ central bank, estimated that if Google were to integrate generative A.I. into every search, its electricity use would rise to something like twenty-nine billion kilowatt-hours per year. This is more than is consumed by many countries, including Kenya, Guatemala, and Croatia.
New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-obscene-energy-demands-of-ai
2 Ransom payments for cyberattacks have increased 29,900% since 2018
In 2023, the U.S. was once again battered by a barrage of financially-motivated ransomware attacks that denied Americans access to critical services, compromised their personal information, and probably killed some of them. In total, 2,207 U.S. hospitals, schools and governments were directly impacted by ransomware over the course of the year, with many more being indirectly impacted via attacks on their supply chains. Additionally, thousands of private sector companies were either directly or indirectly impacted. We believe that the only solution to the ransomware crisis – which is as bad as it has ever been – is to completely ban the payment of ransoms.
According to Chainalysis’ mid-year update, $449 million in ransoms was paid in the first six months of the year, and 2023 was tracking to be the second most profitable year to date for ransomware actors. The bulk of that $449 million was likely paid by U.S. organizations. Other ransomware-related costs include business disruption, incident response, loss of intellectual property, and a plethora of other post-breach expenses including regulatory filings and notifications. While we have insufficient data to estimate the overall cost of ransomware to the U.S. economy, it’s safe to assume it runs to billions of dollars. For context, MGM Resorts estimated the cost of its September attack at $100 million, while the August attack on Clorox has cost $356 million so far.
In 2018, ransom payments averaged $5,000, but by 2023 that had increased by 29,900 percent to about $1.5 million.
Emi Soft Blog
3 Chinese exports surge, prompting global backlash
China’s factory exports are powering ahead faster than almost anyone expected, putting jobs around the world in jeopardy and setting off a backlash that is gaining momentum. From steel and cars to consumer electronics and solar panels, Chinese factories are finding more overseas buyers for goods. The world’s appetite for its goods is welcomed by China, which is enduring a severe downturn in what had been the economy’s biggest driver of growth: building and outfitting apartments. But other countries are increasingly concerned that China’s rise is coming partly at their expense, and are starting to take action. The European Union announced last week that it was preparing to charge tariffs, which are import taxes, on all electric cars arriving from China. The European Union said that it had found “substantial evidence” that Chinese government agencies have been illegally subsidizing these exports, something China denies. The amount of the tariffs will not be set until summer but will apply to any electric car imported by the bloc from March 7 onward. During a visit to Beijing in December, European leaders warned that China is compensating for its housing crisis by building far more factories than it needs. China already produces a third of the world’s manufactured goods, more than the United States, Germany, Japan and South Korea combined, according to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
NYT
4 With violence rising, Haitian PM resigns
Haiti’s prime minister, who has come under growing pressure to resign as gangs have overrun the country, said late Monday that he would step down once a transitional council had been established, to pave the way for the election of a new president and help restore stability.
Haiti has spiraled into a state of extreme unrest since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 led to widespread gang violence. To date, the country has no president nor any other elected national officials. Mr. Henry was sworn in as prime minister only two weeks after Mr. Moïse’s killing. But Haitians have not yet been able to choose a democratically elected successor. The current unrest is on a scale not seen in decades. The recent escalation of violence, gang attacks on police stations and even coordinated assaults on two prisons have left Haitians to deal with a humanitarian disaster as access to food, water and health care has been severely curtailed.
After months of delays, Haiti and Kenya signed an agreement this month to move forward with the deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers to the Caribbean nation. President William Ruto of Kenya said his country had a “historic duty” to press ahead because “peace in Haiti is good for the world as a whole.”
Over the weekend, U.S. forces evacuated nonessential U.S. citizen workers from the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince and added more security personnel, according to a statement from the Defense Department’s Southern Command. It said no Haitians were included in the airlift.
NYT
5 Chinese national indicted for allegedly transferring Google AI secrets to CCP
A federal grand jury indicted Linwei Ding, aka Leon Ding, charging him with four counts of theft of trade secrets in connection with an alleged plan to steal from Google LLC (Google) proprietary information related to artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The announcement was made by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland this afternoon while participating in a “Fireside Chat” at the American Bar Association’s 39th National Institute on White Collar Crime in San Francisco. According to the indictment, returned on March 5 and unsealed earlier today, Ding, 38, a national of the People’s Republic of China and resident of Newark, California, transferred sensitive Google trade secrets and other confidential information from Google’s network to his personal account while secretly affiliating himself with PRC-based companies in the AI industry. Ding was arrested earlier this morning in Newark.
Justice.gov
3/12/1933 FDR broadcasts first ‘fireside chat’ during the Great Depression
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