Meta’s AI data center plans are sabotaged by rare bees
Environmental regulators reportedly quashed Mark Zuckerberg’s nuclear plant partnership meant to help power Meta’s ongoing artificial intelligence projects. The details are scarce, but it is believed that the primary reason for the halting of plans was due to a single issue: rare bees. The area chosen was convenient for accessing the nearby nuclear plant, which is not yet known. Zuckerberg confirmed, however, the cancellation of the project during a Meta All-Hands Meeting last week, as reported by FT. The CEO of the company added that Meta had been on track to be the first company to use nuclear power to create AI using the largest data center plant available. Meta did not respond to our requests for comment when we wrote this. Microsoft and other tech companies are still facing energy shortages due to recent AI investments. Earlier this year, Microsoft confirmed its greenhouse gas emissions rose an estimated 29 percent since 2020 due to new data centers specifically “designed and optimized to support AI workloads.” Google has also calculated its own pollution generation has increased as much as 48 percent since 2019, largely because of data center energy needs.
“As we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging,” Google researchers wrote in a July sustainability report.
[Related: Massive AI energy demand is bringing Three Mile Island back from the dead.]
Critics, meanwhile, continue to voice concerns about these often controversial AI projects’ staggering energy requirements. One AI-integrated Google search, for instance, can require up to ten times as much energy as a regular Google search. This is equivalent to leaving a light bulb on for twenty minutes. As a result, several tech companies announced plans that revolve around nuclear power in the last few months. Microsoft is currently working to bring back the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant for its AI requirements, while Amazon has invested hundreds of millions in a partnership with Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna nuclear plant. Google is currently investing in the development of modular “mini” nuclear reactors for its own energy requirements.
The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission lists 94 operational commercial reactors at 55 nuclear power plants in 28 states that collectively provide about one-fifth of the nation’s energy. Dozens of bee species found across the US are currently considered at-risk or endangered, so it is difficult to determine which species caused Meta’s project setback, and where it happened.
While the specific nuclear plant and bee remains a mystery, Purdue University assistant professor of entomology Brock Harpur believes that the current status of US bee species points to a few possibilities.
“If it’s in California, there are now several protected bumble bees,” Harpur told Popular Science.
California’s only operational nuclear facility is currently Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County. It’s likely that Meta wanted to reach out to PG&E, the owners of Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County to stay ahead of its AI competitors. Diablo Canyon did not respond at the time Popular Science wrote this article. Harpur speculated, given that the majority of US nuclear power plants are located in the Midwest and East, that the rare pollinator could be the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee, which was the first bee to be added to the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s endangered species list for 2017.
