@HennaVirkkunen

Altman is dreaming of

AI in the workplace may stipulate major social problems regarding workforce

AI INCREASES climate problems.

Get your things done!!!

@HennaVirkkunen

... which I don't mean in any elitist way. I mean everyone.

@HennaVirkkunen

Just listen to the actual people.

@HennaVirkkunen

Because what you're saying is "we don't need you anymore, we've got those machines that always say 'yes'"

@HennaVirkkunen And then when this industry collapses you can be the specialest person who was like, "I didn't waste your tax money on this, I improved the climate for us all instead". Omg you could be so cool and sexy if you did that, can you imagine?

@HennaVirkkunen Do not do this.

@HennaVirkkunen of all the things to burn €30 billion on, you chose an objective economic bubble that hastens global warming... and you're celebrating this?

@danielquinn @HennaVirkkunen Good thing is that it's European project, so by the time they are ready to start with building, AI bubble will already burst

@engineer @danielquinn @HennaVirkkunen Historically, that has not prevented the projects with signed contracts from going forward. A lot of (EU-funded) Blockchain/Web3/NFT research projects were carried out long after their valuations had collapsed.

@ansuz @engineer @danielquinn @HennaVirkkunen the EU couldn’t find its own ass with both hands and a map

@ansuz @engineer @danielquinn @HennaVirkkunen

I have an idea here: We *do* need to get off the Amerikaanse bigtech cloud. Let's build datacentres, but let's design them so they're (a) _efficient_ and (b) _flexible_, so when we finally get 'round to actually building them (and may it be because AI collapses tomorrow, with all its inefficiency and theft and planet-harming), we can build for ordinary cloud load, sustainable power, and a general win-win for everybody, not just billionaires pushing AI.

@HennaVirkkunen what is meant by "AI"? Is it any technology under the AI umbrella or is it just spicy autocomplete aka LLMs?

@HennaVirkkunen kombucha_girl_panel_1_cropped.jpg

@HennaVirkkunen

Respectfully, please don't do this.

GenAI/LLM is a technological dead end like asbestos or blockchain. It will accelerate the climate crisis, deprive communities of energy and deskill the people who use it, causing far more damage than utility. The damage will be long-lasting, people in the future will curse us for going down this path.

The money would be far better spent on other areas of data sovereignty.

@HennaVirkkunen This is just about the worst idea imaginable. Some would compare it to tulipmania on horse steroids - but at least tulips are real & people like them.

Please come to your senses, quickly.

@HennaVirkkunen

Choose the bushfire area where it burns down.

Well, I say that as someone who is a sysadmin for decades.

Did you check the Space X shares? $1.15, below initial value, a few weeks later. And falling. Free falling.

@HennaVirkkunen This is really not a good idea.

@HennaVirkkunen

I just hope this stupid bubble implodes before there is much built in Europe.

@robelix being an EU financed project, they'll do the same they did in Web3/NFT/Blockchain: allow the projects to go forward while knowing fully well that it'll never bring anything to fruition.
@HennaVirkkunen

@HennaVirkkunen €30 billion? How about using that money to stop the climate collapse in stead of accellerating it?

Edit: okay, it's actually just €10 bilion, but still...

@HennaVirkkunen You are "pleased to see"...what? 🔥 There are forest fires all over the continent, serious heat waves and droughts and you are " pleased to see "...what? Wow, I really don't know what to say. 🤷‍♀️

@HennaVirkkunen

You are dumping 30 billions.
AI is a overhyped bubble and will pop.

@HennaVirkkunen These AI Gigafactories will be built where there is already enough renewable power supply and ample cooling water, right? ... Right?

@HennaVirkkunen the fuck is wrong with you people

@HennaVirkkunen

@HennaVirkkunen We should be investing in renewable energy and battery storage instead. AI adds little value for humankind, with significant downsides.

@HennaVirkkunen Why?

@HennaVirkkunen AI is basically the digital version of gasoline… Do NOT do encourage those dependencies.

For automobiles the state happily built roads all over the place, and now we can barely travel sustainably. We can’t get rid of the cars because politicians did not prioritise trains and sustainable alternatives. DO NOT do the same with the AI. Keep the digital economy sustainable, and for god’s sake do not copy the unsustainable US.

#predictions #slop #EU

@HennaVirkkunen We don't want to become an "AI Continent" we want to become a "Continent where we can drink water, grow food, and be healthy"

@HennaVirkkunen I am hopeful nothing will come out of this except an enormous waste of money. Please aim for a better best case next time, okay? Doing nothing, for example.

@HennaVirkkunen

Who told you, that there is a "need" for Europe to "become an AI continent"? Google? Microsoft? Nvidia? CEO ranks with no clue, what they are talking about? Investors? Lobbyists?

Europe has to become
- CO2 emissions neutral
- more social
- more educated

I recommend you to study diverse papers that are not promoted by interested parties, but written by scientists.

Neutral networks are NOT Turing complete - and as such there is no singularity in view, regardless what Sam 1/

@HennaVirkkunen a call to polluting water and, making climate change even worse. And much more damiging stuff. How moronic can you lot be?

@HennaVirkkunen

No thanks! 👎

@HennaVirkkunen absolutely fuck the EU.

@HennaVirkkunen It is also just about the dumbest thing you could possibly do. But hey, it's not like Europe is burning or has its rivers running dry. So let's pour some more fossil fuel on top and extract all the remaining water. Why not? Jolly good time. 🤷

@HennaVirkkunen Are you out of your goddamn minds?

@HennaVirkkunen Just don't destroy our world more with this bullshit!

@HennaVirkkunen What the Hell.
JUST DON'T.
#StopWithTheEffingAI

@HennaVirkkunen

@HennaVirkkunen Yes. Burn the planet faster for profit. This is fine.

@HennaVirkkunen Europe doesn't need this in the middle of a climate crisis. Focus on real research, real engineering, real science, real industry.

@HennaVirkkunen I'm openning the call for the AI Gigafactories to fuck right off.

- LLM is a technological deadend,
- LLMs are built in deeply immoral and largely illegal manner with stealing peoples work without their consent,
- It's elitist, closing that stolen knowledge behind subscription that poorer people won't be able to pay,
- Those gigafactories gussle up an ungodly amount of energy that should be used by the people, moving the goalpost of only ecological energy production further away,
- Calling them gigafactories is the biggest lie since they provide only a really small amount of work places for highly trained people.
- What are the chances that those gigafactories will be used in some degree by companies that use technology to support palestinian genocide? I guess high.

@HennaVirkkunen There are patches of land outside Bordeaux and Madrid you can place those. No? Too soon?

@HennaVirkkunen I think this is a great idea! Definitely the most effective use of €30b I've ever heard.

Apropos of nothing, I was just hit on the head by a falling coconut.

@HennaVirkkunen absolutely awful plan.
Huge waste of money.
Benefits only the tech oligarchs that will control everyone else.
Paying for our own destruction!!!

@HennaVirkkunen booooooo

@HennaVirkkunen Which social-practical usage do AI gigafactories have - do they lower the cost of living for EU citizens? Nope, they do the complete opposite by being energy hungry blackholes bumping up energy and water prices.

Do they create jobs? Nope, they destroy more jobs and create an issue a future generation will suffer. Since CEOs replace entry level jobs with AI, there will be no senior workers when Gen X leaves the job market

Do they create profit? Only for shell firms and tax fraud

@HennaVirkkunen Booooooooooo!

@HennaVirkkunen

Fun Fact: AI Gigafactories easily burn down.

So do AI bros.

@HennaVirkkunen I'm very worried about this.

@HennaVirkkunen And that is meant to benefit whom? Those at the top? Or regular Europeans? The folks at the European Commission need to get their act together on this one, least they want to be out of job. As a reminder: by the people, and for the people.

@HennaVirkkunen Europe is running fast in the wrong direction with a lot of rulings and decisions.

#agecontrol #ai

@HennaVirkkunen No, don't. You'll undermine workers and our climate.

@HennaVirkkunen we don't want to be an AI continent, we want to be a human continent

@mxfraud @HennaVirkkunen absolutely !

@HennaVirkkunen Ah cool, we have given up on fighting the climate crisis as well. Shame.

@HennaVirkkunen You are a disgrace and should be ashamed of yourself.

@HennaVirkkunen Would this "technical sovereignty" have anything to do with mass surveillance, by chance?

@HennaVirkkunen What a terrible idea!

@HennaVirkkunen i see you're keen to take part in the 2.9 Trillion dollar debt house of cards the big 5 tech companies are stacking up.
It wouldn't do for the EU to escape from the upcoming rug-pull when glorified auto-complete proves to only be that.

@HennaVirkkunen Seriously… reconsider this.

You're already fighting wildfires on a scale similar to that which devastated Canberra almost 25 years ago. Bordeaux, France is literally getting roasted as I type this, and it's only a matter of time before leaf litter gets hoovered up by that firestorm weather system and starts firebombing the place.

Massive heat generating facilities like "AI" datacentres Will Only Make This Worse!

@HennaVirkkunen

You realize that the slogan "becoming an AI Continent" is not just beyond stupid as a catchphrase (as forests are burning), but also an in-your-face insult to any actually intelligent citizen?

@HennaVirkkunen Or we could invest that money into renewable energy, and ways to deal with the droughts that plague Europe, instead of building things that will accelerate our problems.

@HennaVirkkunen 🤡

@HennaVirkkunen AI-datakeskukset ovat helvetinmoinen syöpä: ne ahmivat sähköä ja vettä ilman, että tuottavat yhteiskunnalle juuri mitään oikeaa arvoa. Samalla ne jauhavat alleen taidetta, kulttuuria ja ihmisten luovuutta, kun kaikki pitää korvata halvalla, sieluttomalla tekoälysisällöllä. Koko touhu on vitun kestämätöntä, eikä sitä pitäisi juhlia edistyksenä vaan pitää varoittavana esimerkkinä siitä, mihin ahneus voi johtaa.

@HennaVirkkunen So you have no mercy what so ever for upcoming generations? Did you notice the recent natural fires in southern Europe? Have you heard of something called #Climate Crisis"? Common sense? :p

PS: it is world overshoot day today. We have no earthly renewable resources left to use this year.

@HennaVirkkunen feeding the debt monster while destroying the environment, the corruption is staggering...

@HennaVirkkunen I can't think of a single good reason why we should do this, while dozens why we _shouldn't_ come to my mind immediately!

@HennaVirkkunen What an absolutely horrendous thing to be pleased about. "AI" is worse than CFCs, tetraethyl lead, and thalidomide combined. The pro-AI crowd all sound like drug addicts and cultists when they aren't obvious grifters, racists, and fascists. It's awful for the environment, causes what amounts to brain damage in its users, it relies on stolen works, and is extraordinarily damaging to society as a whole. Why in the hell would you want to invest in such an insane venture?

@HennaVirkkunen AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

@HennaVirkkunen this is beyond stupid (as in burning money and burning up the planet) for something that barely works, sometimes. The bubble will have burst and we’ll all have mud on our faces (at best) by the time anything concrete could come out of this.

@HennaVirkkunen disrespectfully, please don't do this. everyone hates 'ai'

@HennaVirkkunen please don't, this is a money and energy sink

@HennaVirkkunen
How much will the energy prices go up? And who is going to pay the increase?

Let me answer it myself: we are going to pay for it and we won't have any benefits from this AI garbage.

@diabhoil @HennaVirkkunen only problems with energy and water needs, thank you for the planet !

@HennaVirkkunen I'm sure there's nothing to convince you that this a mistake, but I'll say it anyway: This is absolute madness. The continent is on fire, energy prices are rising, drought everywhere and you believe it is a good thing to spend billions to make it even worse? I'd suggest you wake up, but I know you won't...

@HennaVirkkunen
May I suggest a cheaper option? Invest in VW diesel gigafactories. It will have the same climate effects, and we already have the technology, where as with AI we would be starting from scratch unless we end up buying American or Chinese, missing the point of digital sovereignty.

And the result may be useful (if we can still find diesel) in the post AI collapse Mad Max style climate hellscape you seem to be going all in on.

@HennaVirkkunen look i'm all about EU data sovereignty in the face of US cloud monopolies, but for fuck's sake, read the room. €30B could be better spent on more immediate problems, not having a bullshit machine produce more bullshit.

@HennaVirkkunen One can only hope EU beaurocracy will slow this project enough for you (and all) to see this is madness.

@HennaVirkkunen I don't want Europe to become an AI continent.

@HennaVirkkunen And this is supposed to be--a GOOD thing? 😕

@HennaVirkkunen i hope they are all fossil fuel powered, else it would be only half as fun,

@HennaVirkkunen

This is madness. Do not do this!

If you really feel you must address AI, just wait until the collapse, and then pick up anything useful that may remain for virtually nothing

@HennaVirkkunen Great, faster to extinction!

@HennaVirkkunen
We already are at 36⁰C today. Some areas of my region have less than one week of water left for irrigation. Other areas of my country are on fire. Other areas of the EU are on fire. But no, let's become the genAI Continent...

@HennaVirkkunen What a waste of tax-money and an environmental hazard.

@HennaVirkkunen what the fuck, people. Stop this shit, people and species are dying. There is no upside to this other than for people without a conscience.

@HennaVirkkunen Aren't there more urgent things to use that money for? Like the climate catastrophe in central Europe for example?

@grumpydad @HennaVirkkunen

@HennaVirkkunen It's a milestone for NVIDIA, not for the EU. Sad to see this. We don't need gigafactories we need climate preservation efforts

@HennaVirkkunen seriously, right in the middle of the worst heatwaves SO FAR, with an upcoming even bleaker future, with half of Europe LITERALLY ON FIRE, the EU is going to donate billions to some of most climate-impacting and useless industries? Where did any of you get the idea that that was a smart thing to do?

How about you invest that money into gaining independence from the oil industry, given how impactful that has been already even in purely financial terms?

https://www.euronews.com/2026/05/30/clean-energy-saved-eu-51-billion-in-2025-by-cutting-fossil-fuel-imports-as-solar-leads-the

@HennaVirkkunen AI gigafactories, uhm yeah. You really don't understand what you're talking about. And I thought you did.

@oblomov

@HennaVirkkunen €30bn, that is like, 1.5 bleeding edge gigafabs. One and a half.

Good start, but as an old man on Taiwan has said "too little, too late".

@HennaVirkkunen
The ratio on this beast...

@HennaVirkkunen

The world is already burning and you are happy to accelerate that?

@HennaVirkkunen We would be glad if you could ask people before launching such stupid projects !

I'm sure the vote wouldn't be in favore of AI gigafactories, there's so many things to do to protect Europe and its citizens, so that they can live better in a living protected nature !

@HennaVirkkunen Oh dear, throwing more money at the AI bubble. 🙄

@HennaVirkkunen There's no sovereignty in chasing the latest Big Tech Hype.

@HennaVirkkunen Please don’t do this!

@HennaVirkkunen
Do you politicians take courses in Applied Ignorance or are you recruited due to talent?

Because, it can't be that you're just pawns of Big Money, right?

Read the room.

@HennaVirkkunen 30B that could've been diverted into making clean energy for everyone, and quick

@HennaVirkkunen Keep your techno-fascist shit out of Mastodon.
You Nazis aren't welcome here.

@HennaVirkkunen I hope you will consider how strongly represented people in computing is here on Mastodon and how many negative reactions you're getting for this call. The two might be related.

@HennaVirkkunen Have you not actually seen the news of the fires and other climate change devastation? We don't need this and we don't want it.

@HennaVirkkunen tell me you dont care about your job, your responsibility, the EU, wildlife, humanity, the climate, a liveable future- without telling me you don't care about those things.

@HennaVirkkunen why are we consuming US propaganda? Don't spend my tax money on bailing out failing "AI" businesses who can't even think of a viable business model.

@HennaVirkkunen Hey I know you like tech that calls you super smart with the bestest ideas, but how about I send you an email every day that tells you that and you spend the money on renewables instead. Sound good?

@HennaVirkkunen This is not in the interest of European citiziens.
Parts oft Europe is burning, another is hiding inside from the extreme heat wave, we got low water levels in rivers, depleating ground water.
Nobody needs this! Only autocrats that want to control desperate stupid people.

@HennaVirkkunen please don’t.

@HennaVirkkunen Euro Torment Nexus

@HennaVirkkunen

@HennaVirkkunen
Idiotic

@HennaVirkkunen
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol40/0996/2026/en/

»This is a milestone for Europe in becoming an AI Continent.«
😨 These days, I just find myself shaking my head more and more every day.

@HennaVirkkunen

@HennaVirkkunen Even if we disregard all the ethical issues of LLMs like theft, scams, and so much more.
Even then when the AI bubble collapses that'll be €30 billion down the drain.
This will go down as one of the worst decision anyone in the EU has ever made....

@HennaVirkkunen If only I could vote you out of your position I would. And the world would be a slightly better place.

@HennaVirkkunen Well fuck you.

Attempting to rebrand your AI datacentres as "gigafactories" is an impressively bad way to announce this mistake. They are not factories. They do not manufacture anything. They run software, and they soak up surplus investment capital and other resources which are for some reason in need of burning.

People of the recent past and the recent future alike would have a hard time understanding how anyone could think that "Europe becoming an AI Continent" is a phrase that could be taken seriously by anyone.

@HennaVirkkunen Why. Is there actually a structured plan on how to measure for outcomes and test before building all that out?

Or is it just "they have money, let's sell all we can of our countries because obviously money is gonna feed us and make our society better!" /s

@HennaVirkkunen Sovereignty without accountability becomes GovOS theater.

@HennaVirkkunen that is some strong bullshit right there. AI continent my ass.

@HennaVirkkunen What a waste of resources 😕
Please invest that money in digital commons instead, we need more democratic spaces and practices

@vanecx @HennaVirkkunen Public money, public code.

@HennaVirkkunen Wow, you mean the AI bubble that's about to pop and cost trillions on wasted pointless data centres?
You are a bit behind the times!

@HennaVirkkunen

So, just to confirm: you observed the US become dominated by billionaires and exploitative companies who are throwing trillions or dollars at technology that provides marginal (at best) benefits to society and entrenches their power, and your reaction was 'the EU should do that too!'?

For comparison, the amount that you're burning on this is more than twice as much as you'd need for the EU to build a competitive range of memory-safe sovereign CPUs from microcontroller up to server class devices and port most open-source software to run on them. This would reduce the attack surface for all EU infrastructure significantly and provide strong sovereignty guarantees.

Can you share how you did a cost-benefit calculation and decided that chasing a big-tech fad was the best return on investment for the bloc?

@HennaVirkkunen Green doesn't suit you btw, maybe a blood red would be a better look.

@HennaVirkkunen Henna Virkkunen, palokunnassa sytytyspuolella. Toivottavasti sujahtaa sopivasti euroja taskuun niin ei tarvitse tuntea omantunnontuskia.

@HennaVirkkunen Which Europeans did you ask if they *wanted* Europe to become an "AI continent"?
Because an overwhelming majority of us don't.

@HennaVirkkunen do you hear yourself

@HennaVirkkunen

not a single person in your entourage with the know-how and the guts to tell you that mimicking the US in their descent into tech -fascism is the dumbest possible move?
Can you at least explain how this squandering of resources should be supposed to help EU industry at all?

@HennaVirkkunen the nuclear power station Romania had to shut down due to lack of water provides 1.3GW; 20% of the nation's electricity, or enough for 1 or 2 large AI data centers. These things are opportunities to send huge amounts of money out of the EU to import hardware that will be worthless within 3 years and will consume obscene amounts of power in the meantime

@HennaVirkkunen Spend the money on rooting out the far right terrorists instead.

It's self-funding once you put in the effort, since rich people are illegally funding these groups.

Including Putin, Musk, and other such known criminals.