Mastodawn

TheDude 12h ago

For some reason "AI is just like watching Netflix" is back in my feeds so I took that as a sign to update my data tracking for Netflix. The company's energy use rose 1% from 2021 to 2024.

Compare that to:

Google: 71%
Nvidia: 88%
Meta: 96%
Microsoft: 119%

Where are all the multi-gigawatt, tens-of-megatonnes gas-fired data centres being proposed by Netflix? Are governments frantically rushing fast-tracking laws for video streaming?

@ketan Looking at your data, Google, Microslop and Amazon are all using around 1/10 of the yearly power consumption of Italy.

Alejandro_P 10h ago

@ketan can you explain what happened in the dip 2023 for be Netflix? Looks super weird

FandaSin 9h ago

My guess would be "end of covid".

"In May 2023, the WHO declared an end to the public health emergency of international concern."

https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/medical-advances/new-therapies-and-drug-trials/covid-19-pandemic-timeline

When Did the Pandemic Start and End?

The COVID-19 pandemic started in March 2020. The public health emergency of international concern ended in May 2023.

Northwestern Medicine

@Alejandro_P @ketan
Also, Netflix was under pressure to cut its power consumption, and it did that. See
https://greenly.earth/en-us/leaf-media/data-stories/the-carbon-cost-of-streaming

It's an interesting read. part of what Netflix did is obvious green washing. But it did reduce power consumption as well. Also note that showing only 2021-2024 is a bit cherry-picking in Netflix's favour.

At the time there was huge pressure to reduce power consumption. This pressure has greatly reduced.

The Carbon Cost of Streaming - Greenly

This data story examines the carbon footprint of major streaming platforms to reveal the global emissions impact of digital entertainment.

verified_transgender

@ketan they didn't try to one-sidedly erode copyright laws for video streaming to the benefit of corporations. at no point did anyone suggest that the GDPR shouldn't apply to video streaming services and tried to amend the law to allow video streaming services to collect sensible user data and give it to US corporations that try to exploit them or even openly suggest say they will be deciding who gets murdered by the state in the future.

@ketan (and the GAFAM datacenter energy consumption is actually probably underestimated, IIRC they try as hard as possible to hide their real numbers)

Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴‍♂️📷 🗺️9h ago

I wonder if that later increase in Netflix energy consumption relates to increased energy costs of 4K video transmission.

Jeff Grigg 8h ago

@the5thColumnist @ketan

Netflix is a service that people actually want.

Bosses don't have to threaten you with termination to make you watch more movies on Netflix.

Consumers are quite willing to pay real money for the Netflix service. And additional money for 4K video.

Jeff Grigg 7h ago

@the5thColumnist @ketan

Nobody's trying to stuff Netflix into all other products and services.

(But, honestly, they've tried refrigerators and bathroom showers and mirrors. But those have not worked out all that well, and have just not "taken off.")

.

Nobody's selling Netflix to the military, to plan strikes against various targets, including hospitals and girl's schools. 💢

pibert π 9h ago

Somehow the energy bills are higher

thomasmey 8h ago

@ketan any idea why Nvidia has such a much increased energy consumption? Do they offer any ai tools themselves?

@thomasmey @ketan nvidia is the company making all the infrastructure for AI happen. they actually are self-subsidizing their products to the rest of the tech-corps to stay in the market as the defacto monopoly. example of video discussion on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0TpWitfxPk. example of article discussion on this: https://archive.is/CbMRu

The State of the AI Industry is Freaking Me Out

YouTube

@hydroxyl They’ve definitely chosen their hill to die on. Don’t stop your enemy when he chooses to do something stupid. And make no mistake, these fuckers are your enemy.

@su_liam tbh i'd prefer to stop this acceleration of environmental destruction, but i get your vibe

blobcatcomfcool

SomeGadgetGuy 7h ago

@ketan It's an even better look for Netflix, as over this period of time they added almost 100 million more subscribers.
If we saw a 50% increase in current AI use, the energy demand would be a lot bigger than netflix adding that many new viewers.

gkrnours 3h ago

@ketan also that's misleading because it's relative to 2021 usage, not raw usage. Netflix energy usage stayed stable while starting at a fraction of everyone else

minimoysmagician 1h ago

@ketan Hey, which sources do you use for this? Would like to present this to other people :)