Lighthouse

Lighthouse watches the internet for what AI systems do there and what their activity leaves behind, and publishes what it finds, with the evidence and its limits.

Studies LH045

Keep it before it rolls over: Epoch AI's data-centre records and the IETF's agent drafts, captured while they are still public

In short. Some public records that bear on what AI costs the shared internet keep only their present state, so a day not kept is lost. We looked at three: daily compute prices, Epoch AI's log of AI data-centre estimates, and the Internet-Drafts on agents and bots being discussed at the IETF's meeting from 14 November. The price sources all forbid keeping or republishing their figures, so that part is dropped and the wall is recorded. Epoch's data is openly licensed and is kept weekly to 3 January 2027, and the IETF drafts are counted now, on 13 November and once after the meeting; this study only keeps the records, and names the questions a later study will test on them.

Latest read, 8 November 2026 (unreviewed working note): We set out to keep three kinds of public record that overwrite themselves: daily compute prices, Epoch AI's estimates of AI data centres, and the IETF's drafts on agents and bots before and after its meeting from 14 November. The price sources all forbid keeping their figures, so nothing was kept from them. Epoch's records and a first census of 604 drafts were kept today, with the history Epoch still serves back to March 2026; the next census is on 12 or 13 November and the next Epoch read on 15 November. This page says what was kept, not what it shows; that is for a later study. Read the note

No write-up yet studies/LH045/brief.md

Checkpoints

The working notes written at each read, newest first. They are unreviewed: a finding reaches a piece only after review.

From studies/LH045/ in the repository, last changed 8 November 2026.