When I wrote this, I still thought it was mostly bluff from the AI companies to keep the hype alive and talk up their share price. Now, it looks like they are really hell-bent on making my worst-case scenario a reality.
5 GW data centres means 10x the current largest ones, and these are already 10x compared to the largest ones from a few years ago. This is pure madness. For reference, all the nuclear in the UK produces 6 G, all wind 30 GW.
https://wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/the-real-problem-with-AI/