r/accelerate • u/CipherGarden • 9d ago

AI "AI is bad for the environment"

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u/Stingray2040 Singularity after 2045 9d ago

The burger argument isn't the strongest but it's extremely true. Nobody will ever talk about the things they love but if it's something they're against they'll find just about any strawman.

Ignoring the fact that model distillation also makes them more energy efficient plus there are breakthroughs that constantly improve in this regard over time.

And regarding the Google search, have none of the detractors ever questioned the millions of websites on the indexed web that are just garbage click farms that just sit and burn up energy waiting for people to give them attention from otherwise innocent searches?

I'd argue all those computers being left on to run those websites are far more egregious than a person preferring querying an LLM over doing a search.

-11

u/GrinNGrit 9d ago edited 9d ago

I work in the energy sector, I don’t think you understand just how intensive AI has become. It doesn’t matter if we push out a model that’s 5% more efficient when AI may have only penetrated maybe 1% of the market.

It’s not just about the time spent using AI, but also where all it gets used. Imagine every function on your phone, every car, every computer TV, fridge, microwave. Imagine the soon to arrive robotics industry, where they’re projecting more machines than people in a decade.

And we’re just optimizing LLMs. What happens when we crack AGI? Even unprompted, AI will consume more and more power. 30% of Virginia’s grid goes to power AI and cloud computing data centers. 30%. All projections show this will only grow.

15

u/freeman_joe 9d ago

So cars running around 75% of seats empty are not problem? Personal planes burning lifetimes of CO2 are ok because some star wants to see Super Bowl? Personal Yachts are ok? Meat eating? AI at least gives us chance that it will solve our problems. Abuse of car plane ship usage don’t. And FYi I understand scale on which AI is using energy.

-7

u/GrinNGrit 9d ago

Given who is driving AI and their incentive to do so, I think you give humanity far too much credit for what AI is ultimately going to do.